Mass. attorney tried to smuggle marijuana-soaked paper into prison, placed bets for inmate, feds say

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Massachusetts attorney is among four people facing charges in connection with a scheme to smuggle marijuana-soaked paper into a New England detention center, federal investigators announced Tuesday.

Attorney Theresa M. DiJoseph, 50, of Woburn, is charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, providing a prohibited object to an inmate, and making a false statement, according to United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.

Hanasa Stedford, 21, of Hamden, Connecticut, and two detainees at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, 46-year-old Shawn D. Hart, and 26-year-old Samuel Douglas, are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and providing a prohibited object to an inmate.

During a visit to Wyatt on July 9, 2023, DiJoseph used her credentials as an attorney to meet with Hart in a visiting room but correctional officers later filed an incident report when DiJoseph was “found to be acting suspicious and monitoring the correctional officer’s movements,” according to charging documents.

DiJoseph allegedly sent text messages to Hart, with Hart receiving them on a Wyatt-issued tablet. Cunha’s office said the messages revealed that DiJoseph had sent Hart personal photos of herself and screenshots showing Cash App or sports-betting transactions that she appeared to have engaged in on Hart’s behalf.

Cunha’s office said DiJoseph was temporarily prohibited from visits with Hart but later allowed to.

During a subsequent attempted visit with Hart on Dec. 1, 2023, Wyatt correctional officers caught DiJoseph with 10 sheets of paper that appeared “discolored, thicker than normal, and to have been wet and dried, consistent with papers soaked in synthetic marijuana,” the charging documents alleged.

Cunha’s office said those papers were later sent to an FBI testing lab and they were confirmed to be soaked in marijuana.

Wyatt detainee Douglas had allegedly arranged for his girlfriend, Stedford, to meet with DiJoseph outside the prison to give her the contaminated papers, the charging documents said.

DiJoseph and Stedford were slated to make an initial court appearance in Providence on Tuesday. Hart and Douglas will be called to court at a later date.

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