Citizen Staff Writer
LAW AND ORDER REPORT
SHERYL KORNMAN and DAVID L. TEIBEL
news@tucsoncitizen.com
Two Pima County Jail corrections officers and the brother of one of them are in the Pima County Jail on felony charges, according to Dawn Hanke, spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
Sameer Ibrahim Qasem, 39, and Keith Anthony Doty, 22, are charged with computer tampering, according to Pima County Justice Court documents.
Qasem’s brother, Jameel Ibrahim Qasem, 36, of Tucson is charged with procuring and possessing two fraudulent Social Security cards and two fraudulent Arizona driver’s licenses. He is being held on $25,000 bond.
The cases are being prosecuted by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
The suspected computer tampering was uncovered by the Sheriff’s Department in an internal investigation.
The case was turned over to the FBI, according to Anne Titus Hilby, press secretary to Attorney General Terry Goddard.
She said she could not disclose details about the case, including whether the procurement of the driver’s licenses and Social Security cards with forged documents were related to the suspected computer tampering inside the jail.
Sameer Qasem was hired in January 2003 by the Sheriff’s Department, which operates the jail. He is being held on $500,000 bail on 26 counts of computer tampering.
Doty was hired in July 2006, Hanke said. He is being held on $50,000 bail on eight counts of computer tampering.
The corrections officers were arrested as FBI agents searched Qasem’s home and work locker, Hanke said.
According to court documents, Doty accessed information about people whose records were online at the jail, including records of Leon Traig Williams.
Williams, who had been jailed earlier on a number of misdemeanor charges, killed himself in a standoff with police at a Chase bank branch Sept. 8.
Hanke said the FBI handled most of the investigation.