A former prison guard from Georgia who was convicted on drug charges asked for leniency in his sentencing, citing his military heroism — except the military heroism he cited was fake.
In a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia, authorities announced on Feb. 10 that Nicholas Grindle, 32, received a prison sentence of 87 months behind bars plus three additional years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in November 2024 to charges of conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and bribery. When he stood before a judge for his sentencing, he asked for leniency based on his heroic service while serving in Afghanistan. But then the truth came out.
According to the release, Grindle was working as a prison guard at Georgia’s Hays State Prison when he was caught by his colleagues smuggling “methamphetamine, cell phones, and other contraband” to inmates for a monthlong period in late 2023 and early 2024. Not only were the materials that Grindle planned to distribute discovered in his locker, but an investigation into his financial records revealed that he had been accepting bribes from inmates to bring the goods in…