LIVINGSTON, Texas, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- A chaplain at a Texas prison has been suspended after admitting he smuggled letters from a death-row inmate who threatened a state legislator's family.
The Rev. Richard Anderson, a Methodist minister, is one of two chaplains assigned to the state prison in Livingston, the Houston Chronicle reports. Richard Tabler, sentenced to death for a 2004 double murder, told authorities Anderson took letters out for him when he was questioned about how he had obtained a cell phone he used to call state Sen. John Whitmire.
On the phone, Tabler told Whitmire he knows where his daughters live. In statements on a Web site on Death Row inmates, Tabler said Whitmire's family could be "gotten to" even though he is in prison.
Authorities said Friday they do not know if the letters Anderson smuggled out contained threats. But they said the chaplain could be fired.
Whitmire blasted security at the prison.
"Once an employee is compromised, then the inmates run the prison," he said. "It's not just threatening letters but other contraband, including weapons, that could lead to a real disaster."
