Hamilton jail guard dead a day after arrest

A Hamilton corrections officer arrested at work for allegedly trafficking drugs at the jail was found fatally injured in a farmer's field the next morning.

Jess Steven Potter, a 28-year veteran who had spent his entire career at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre, was arrested Thursday, according to a source close to the situation. On Friday, soon after he was reported missing to police, he was found barely alive with his vehicle in a field in Norfolk County. He died soon after in hospital.

The source says that after Potter was processed by police on Thursday, he briefly returned to the jail to collect his belongings because he was being suspended from his duties there as a result of his arrest. He refused any help from co-workers and told them he was going home.

But he never did go home.

Hamilton Police spokesperson Catherine Martin confirms officers arrested a “54-year-old corrections officer” Thursday for trafficking and benefitting from the proceeds of crime. He was released on a promise to appear and is “now deceased.”

She would not name the accused because the charges against him had not yet been sworn to in court.

Haldimand OPP spokesperson Const. Mark Foster says early Friday morning his detachment received a report that Jess Potter was missing. Soon after that, OPP at the Norfolk detachment discovered Potter in a field, barely alive.

“No foul play is suspected,” says Foster.