WOBURN, MASS. (WHDH) - A Massachusetts attorney and three other people are facing charges in connection with an alleged scheme to smuggle drugs into a Rhode Island prison, officials announced Tuesday.
Theresa DiJoseph, 50, of Woburn was charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, providing a prohibited object to an inmate, and making a false statement, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island.
The US Attorney’s Office said authorities arrested DiJoseph on Tuesday morning. She was expected to appear in court later in the day.
Hanasa Stedford, 21, of Hamden, Conn. was also arrested on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and providing a prohibited object to an inmate.
Already inmates at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island Shawn Hart, 46, and Samuel Douglas, 26, were similarly charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and providing a prohibited object to an inmate, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
Citing charging documents, prosecutors said correctional officers first filed an incident report after they saw DiJoseph acting suspicious and monitoring their movements while visiting Hart at the Wyatt in July 2023.
Prosecutors said DiJoseph had used her credentials as an attorney to meet with Hart in a visiting room without a plexiglass screen.
As an investigation got underway, the US Attorney’s Office said authorities found text messages between DiJoseph and Hart on a prison-issued tablet that included personal photos of DiJoseph and screenshots of Cash App or sports-betting transactions “that she appeared to have engaged in on Hart’s behalf.”
DiJoseph was temporarily banned from having the kind of visits with Hart that she had in July 2023 but was later allowed to resume visits, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
A matter of months after the initial report from guards, prosecutors said, DiJoseph was back at the Wyatt on Dec. 1, 2023 for a new visit with Hart when officers seized 10 sheets of paper that appeared discolored and thicker than normal.
The US Attorney’s Office said the papers also appeared to have been wet and dried, “consistent with papers soaked in synthetic marijuana.”
Prosecutors said authorities sent the papers to an FBI testing lab, which “confirmed the presence of Schedule 1 controlled substances.”
Federal prosecutors said Douglas had arranged for his girlfriend, Stedford, to meet DiJoseph outside the Wyatt to give DiJoseph the contaminated papers that authorities later seized.
Kathy Wing has lived next door to DiJoseph for roughly a decade.
“I was like, ‘No way,'” she said. “I don’t want to think that that’s something that she was doing, especially being an attorney. That’s terrible. How can you do that? How can you use those credentials to do something illegal?”
DiJoseph went before a judge Tuesday and was released on bond. She is due back in court in August.
Attempts to contact DiJoseph or her attorneys were unsuccessful.
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