Header Picture: Principal: Theresa M. DiJoseph coming into the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Heart in Rhode Island carrying quite a few paperwork. Left inset: Correctional officers inspecting allegedly drug-laced paperwork introduced in by DiJoseph at 4:20 p.m. (U.S. Legal professional's Workplace for the District of Rhode Island).
Regulation & Crime
A 50-year-old Massachusetts legal professional has been arrested after authorities say he tried to smuggle drug-infused paper to a person incarcerated at a federal jail in Rhode Island.
Theresa M. DiJoseph was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with one depend every of possession with intent to distribute a managed substance, offering a prohibited object to a prisoner, and making a false assertion, authorities introduced.
Hanasa Stedford, a 21-year-old girl from Connecticut, and two males incarcerated on the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, 46-year-old Shawn D. Hart and 26-year-old Samuel Douglas are additionally accused of taking part within the alleged scheme to contraband All three face one depend of conspiracy to own with intent to distribute a managed substance and one depend of offering a prohibited merchandise to a prisoner.
In response to the Workplace of the USA Legal professional for the District of Rhode Island, DiJoseph on July 9, 2023, used his credentials as an legal professional to fulfill with Hart in a visiting room that didn’t have a display screen in plexiglass between the inmate and the customer and is usually used. by attorneys to do authorized work with purchasers. DiJoseph allegedly crammed out paperwork claiming to be Hart's legal professional.
Hart had been an inmate on the facility since June 2023 after being charged in Massachusetts with distribution of greater than 40 grams of fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute greater than 50 grams of methamphetamine, possession of a firearm within the context of a drug trafficking crime, and being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.
A correctional officer on responsibility on the time of DiJoseph's go to mentioned the legal professional was “slouching and performing very suspicious” and was “watching the actions of the correctional officer,” in line with the legal grievance.
It was quickly found that DiJoseph was not representing Hart in any of his ongoing legal or civil issues and that he had been sending Hart “private images of himself” and putting sports activities bets for him, prosecutors mentioned.
Shortly after that go to, DiJoseph's contact visitation privileges with Hart have been terminated. DiJoseph responded by emailing Wyatt's guardian, saying she was “disgusted” by the allegations of potential misconduct. She mentioned an unidentified “opposing occasion” had served Hart with “a number of paperwork” and that there have been “very sophisticated relevant guidelines and procedures and case legislation that wanted to be defined in particular person due to his very sophisticated scenario.”
In September 2023, DiJoseph allegedly despatched the warden one other electronic mail claiming that in her earlier go to she had been subjected to an “unlawful” search as a result of a corrections officer had checked the paperwork she had introduced together with her she revised “each bit methodically and slowly”. ,” together with what he described as “extremely delicate materials and legal professional work product.”
DiJoseph was allowed to renew contact visits with Hart in late November 2023, the feds mentioned.
On Dec. 1, 2023, DiJoseph visited Hart once more — at “roughly” 4:20 p.m., the grievance specifies. When a corrections officer reviewed the supplies that DiJoseph indicated she needed to convey into the go to with Hart, the officer “noticed a number of items of paper that gave the impression to be moist after which dried, thicker than regular paper, and appeared to discolored”.
“Based mostly on the corrections officer's expertise figuring out medicine in a correctional setting, he confiscated the paperwork — 10 items complete — from DiJoseph as potential artificial marijuana (often known as K2),” the submitting mentioned. “The ten items of paper have been seized by Wyatt's Skilled Requirements Unit and positioned in safe storage till they have been collected by the FBI on December 4, 2023.”
Authorities mentioned the newspapers “contained printed textual content relating to capital punishment circumstances.”
Investigators mentioned the artificial marijuana is usually dipped in paper that’s then torn into smaller items and bought all through the jail. A single piece of paper is estimated to be value $4,000 based mostly on the supply of contraband at a given time.
When requested in regards to the papers, DiJoseph instructed correctional officers that she “took the papers from her printer and introduced them right here.”
The confiscated folder examined constructive for the residue of a number of Schedule 1 managed substances, prosecutors mentioned.
Investigators mentioned they discovered Douglas had ordered his girlfriend, Stedford, to ship the drug-soaked paperwork to DiJoseph so she might ship them to Hart.
When questioned in regards to the paperwork by federal brokers a number of weeks later, DiJoseph said that she went to Staples earlier within the day to print some supplies and “believed that the paperwork have been added to her recordsdata” when she was there. . However when pressed, authorities mentioned, DiJoseph was unable to recall Staples visiting and couldn’t produce a receipt.
DiJoseph and Stedford have been scheduled to make their first court docket look Tuesday. DiJoseph was launched after posting a $10,000 unsecured bond, data present.
Lawyer nabbed at 4:20 for smuggling drug-soaked paperwork disguised as authorized paperwork, did Staples story however had no receipt: Feds
