Former guard pleads guilty to delivering drugs to inmate

BISMARCK, N.D. – A former North Dakota State Penitentiary guard pleaded guilty Tuesday to delivering a cellphone and methamphetamine to an inmate in return for money.

Thirty-nine-year-old Matthew Taylor, of Mandan, faces the possibility of 20 years in prison on a charge of delivering drugs at a correctional facility, the most serious of the two counts against him.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol began an investigation in November 2020. Taylor was working as a correctional officer at the penitentiary in Bismarck from March to November of that year.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says Taylor was fired after the investigation was completed.