A former Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office employee is now on the opposite side of the jail bars.

Michael Scott Bumgardner, who was charged with felony drug charges following an investigation last summer, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to manufacture and deliver a controlled substance and delivery of a controlled substance on Monday.

Bumgardner will serve five to six months in prison and also received a suspended sentence of six to eight months. if he violates his 30 months of probation, the suspended sentence will be activated.

Sheriff Alan Norman said Bumgardner will serve his sentence in a new Bern prison.

In July 2011, sheriff’s undercover narcotics officers investigated reports that detention officer Bumgardner, 59, was sneaking cigarettes and con-trolled substances into the Cleveland County Detention Center.

He had worked at the sheriff’s department three years.

Bumgardner was captured on surveillance video walking out of the jail into the back parking lot and selling pills to an undercover narcotics officer.

When Bumgardner walked into the doors to return to work, deputies were waiting. They took him to the criminal investigations division where investigators found more pills —oxycodone and hydrocodone — in his uniform pocket, Norman previously told the Star.

Norman said he is not surprised that Bumgardner received an active sentence and that even law enforcement officers are not above the law.

“He’s actually held to a higher standard, whether working in the detention center or as an officer that works in the street,” Norman said. “I value the employees that I work with, but at the same time if they violate the law they’re no better than anyone else.”

Reach reporter Rebecca Clark at 704-669-3344

<a href="http://www.gastongazette.com/news/former-68074-officer-prison.htmltag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.gastongazette.com/news/former-68074-officer-prison.htmlTue, 28 Feb 2012 02:49:28 GMT">Detention officer sentenced to prison