DA: Guard fired for false accusation against inmate

A correctional officer who allegedly wrongly accused a female inmate of threatening to shoot her has been fired and arrested, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

Yolanda Grier, 51, was charged with tampering with public records, false reports to law enforcement, unsworn falsification to authorities, obstructing administration of law, official oppression and harassment for the Oct. 7, 2014, incident at Riverside Correctional Facility.

Grier, a 23-year veteran of the prisons system who has worked at Riverside since 2009, turned herself in Tuesday.

Grier told police that a female inmate responded to her order to surrender her visitors' pass with cursing, screaming and threats to shoot Grier. Detectives arrested the inmate for terroristic threats.

But the district attorney's Special Investigations Unit later reviewed surveillance video and discovered Grier lied, according to District Attorney Seth Williams. The video showed the inmate quickly produced the pass and Grier, after taking it, taunted the inmate by pretending to return it and snatch it away several times. The video also showed Grier escalated the situation by pulling out her mace, even though the inmate fully cooperated, prosecutors said.

Criminal charges against the inmate, whose name was not released, were dropped.

"What Yolanda Grier did, making up an incident and then allowing an innocent inmate to be falsely charged, is outrageous and a complete failure of her duties and the oath she took to serve the Philadelphia Department of Corrections and the citizens of our city," Williams said.