Bristol County Sheriff’s Office arrests girlfriend of inmate accused of throwing drugs over jail wall

Sherrif Paul Heroux has announced that the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office is actively working to reduce and hopefully stop the flow of illicit drugs coming into the jail. Evidence of this is an arrest that took place on Tuesday.

Over the course of the past week on two separate occasions contraband was discovered at the Ash Street jail after it had been thrown over the outer perimeter wall. In one instance, security staff found a package in the courtyard after it had just been thrown over the wall which was discovered to contain 15 suboxone strips. The next day, the Major assigned to the Ash Street jail had the maintenance department search the roof for any other contraband that may not have reached its intended destination. They in turn found an additional package containing 69 Suboxone strips, and 15 grams of crack cocaine. Based on this information, Sergeant Christopher Vaz began an investigation into the responsible parties.

Sergeant Vaz was able to determine which inmate at Ash Street was responsible for the attempt to have the contraband thrown over the wall. Vaz was also able to determine that the inmate’s girlfriend, Brittany Hanley, who will be arraigned today in the Third District Court, was involved in the previous attempt, and was in fact conspiring with her inmate boyfriend to again throw contraband over the wall on Tuesday.

Based on this information, investigators from SIU set up surveillance at the Ash Street Jail and we were able to observe Hanley circling the jail in a rented motor vehicle. Hanley was actually on a live recorded telephone call with the inmate she was in contact with as she did this, looking for the most opportune time and location to throw the package.

After observing Hanley drive the wrong way down a one-way street, circle the block and then come back to the side of the Ash Street Jail, investigators decided to conduct a traffic stop on Hanley’s motor vehicle to not give her the opportunity to throw the contraband over the wall.

Upon speaking with her and reading her rights per Miranda, Hanley willingly told BCSO that she purchased 40 Suboxone strips and was intending on throwing them over the wall. A search of her person found the 40 aforementioned suboxone strips along with an additional 8 1/2 grams of suspected fentanyl that she also intended to throw over the wall. At this point, K-9 Officer Michael Kochanek was contacted who conducted a further search of the vehicle with his K-9, which led to the discovery of an additional half gram of fentanyl near the passenger seat. She was placed into custody and charged with several criminal offenses which consisted of:

Possession with intent to distribute a Class B                     

Possession with intent to distribute a Class B

Attempt to Commit a Crime

Conspiracy

The inmates(s) involved at the Ash Street Jail will be placed on Administrative Separation Order tomorrow by SIU pending investigation and returned to the DHOC.