The state watchdog says high-ranking Ohio officials stopped a valid sting planned for the governor's residence only to save the governor embarrassment.
The state Inspector General said in a report Thursday that politics drove the decision by Ohio public safety director Cathy Collins-Taylor to stop the sting from happening.
The report also found numerous problems with the program that allows inmates to work at the governor's residence in Bexley.
The report said inmates can walk unescorted outside the mansion where they received deliveries of contraband and had free access to knives, axes and other tools with no supervision.
The sting targeted a planned January drop-off of contraband by a woman whose inmate husband worked at the residence.
In a statement released by the Governor's office, Strickland said the decisions in the case were made by people acting in good faith. And he said if decisions were made in order to protect him from some kind of embarrassment, that was unnecessary.