BY FRANK GREEN

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Harold Douglas Jr., 30, a former lieutenant at the Lawrenceville Correctional Center was sentenced today to six months behind bars for taking a $2,000 bribe from an inmate.

Douglas took a cashier's check from inmate David E. Davis, 39, in 2006 in exchange for not reporting the inmate had been caught with marijuana.

Davis was convicted of bribery, and got three years added to the 13 years 11 months he is already serving.

Douglas testified that he was the single parent of a 9-year-old son and took the money because he got in financial difficulty. "I needed the money to try and get ahead of my bills," he told the judge.

Judge W. Allan Sharrett told Douglas that he, "committed a crime which has struck at the heart of the integrity of our justice system." But Sharrett noted among other things that Douglas, unlike Davis, was not already a felon and that he was making an attempt to raise his son, though not doing as good a job as Douglas's own parents had done with him.

Sharrett then sentenced Douglas to five years in prison with four years and six months suspended.

The law makes it a crime for public officials to take or solicit a bribe or for someone to make one. Both Douglas and Davis had faced a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Contact Frank Green at fgreen@timesdispatch.com