Former Citrus County Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty to Accepting $4,000 Bribe

TAMPA, Florida — Dekarri Nixon, a 28-year-old former Citrus County correctional officer from Jasper, pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe as a public official.

The plea, entered in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, carries a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison. The government is seeking forfeiture of exactly $4,000, the amount Nixon obtained from the bribe.

A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled. The case was announced by U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida.

The guilty plea changes Nixon’s legal status from defendant to convicted felon on a federal corruption charge. Prior to the plea he faced trial; the new status requires the court to impose sentence under federal guidelines that treat bribery of a public official as a serious offense involving abuse of position.

Downstream, the forfeiture order will require Nixon to surrender the $4,000. The Bureau of Prisons will house him if a prison term is imposed. The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, which employed him as a correctional officer, now holds a final conviction on one of its former staff members for corruption inside the county jail system.

Federal probation officers must prepare a presentence investigation report before the judge can sentence.

This marks the latest federal bribery prosecution of a local corrections employee in Florida. The Department of Justice has pursued similar cases against public officials who accept payments while wielding authority over inmates or facility operations. The statute cited in the plea is 18 U.S.C. § 666, which applies to bribery involving organizations that receive federal benefits.

The plea resolves the criminal case against Nixon without trial. Sentencing will establish the final term of imprisonment, supervised release, and any additional financial penalties.