Inmate, fiancée face pot charges

A man serving time at Airway Heights Corrections Center is accused of trying to smuggle marijuana into the prison with help from his fiancée.

Airway Heights correctional officers found a package containing marijuana, tobacco and rolling paper with George J. Schuler, 59, after a Valentine’s Day visit by his fiancée, Mary E. Harvey, according to court documents. An officer in the visiting room noticed Schuler had something tucked between his legs and asked to inspect it.

Harvey was charged Wednesday with delivery of a controlled substance and introducing contraband. Schuler also faces drug delivery charges.

Schuler admitted he asked Harvey to smuggle in marijuana and tobacco, and said he planned to sell the drugs to other inmates, court documents say.

He also took responsibility for a second package prison officials had recently found in the trash in the bathroom in the visiting area, court records say. Schuler said he planned to have a porter – an inmate who has a prison job – move the package from the trash to a milk container, which would be sorted by inmates in the recycling center.

Schuler is serving six years for possessing stolen property and a stolen firearm in Kittitas County. This sentence began in 2013.

Court documents say Schuler was investigated at Airway Heights Corrections Center in 2004 for attempting to bring drugs into the prison. He received two balloons of heroin from his wife by kissing her, according to court records.

The Department of Corrections said Schuler has since been moved out of Airway Heights to Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell, a medium security facility.