Correctional officers thought DiJoseph’s behavior was suspicious when she used her credentials as an attorney to visit detainee Shawn D. Hart at the Wyatt facility in Central Falls last July, according to an affidavit unsealed in US District Court on Tuesday.
Hart, 46, is awaiting trial on drug and firearm offenses charged in Massachusetts. Over several months, DiJoseph’s flirtatious remarks and arrangements with Hart were captured on the Wyatt’s recorded lines and in text messages on a prison assigned tablet, according to the affidavit.
Later, under questioning by the FBI, DiJoseph called Hart a “private client” whom she had been counseling about visitation rights with his children before he was arrested, according to the affidavit. She said that she had a fee agreement with Hart, but he has never paid her, according to court documents.
DiJoseph also told the federal agents that she and Hart had discussed having an intimate relationship and that she had feelings for him, but that “nothing was ever going to happen between them because she is married and he has a girlfriend,” according to the affidavit.
An initial review by Wyatt of text messages sent between DiJoseph and Hart on a Wyatt-issued tablet allegedly 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. She was temporarily prohibited from contact visits with Hart, but later allowed to resume visits.
Then, on Dec. 1, DiJoseph attempted to visit Hart with papers regarding capital punishment cases, according to court documents. The correctional officers inspected 10 sheets of paper that appeared discolored, thicker than normal, and to have been wet and dried. An FBI testing lab later confirmed that the papers were soaked in synthetic marijuana, according to court documents.
As the correctional officers were looking at the papers, DiJoseph made comments about feeling odd: “This feeling, when does it go away? I cannot drive like this.” One of the correctional officers who had handled the papers close to his face suddenly needed medical attention, according to the affidavit.
DiJoseph’s visiting privileges were revoked. DiJoseph later texted Hart about what to say to the warden: “I’m so mad at you. Why can’t you just swoop me away from this madness? Not forever… just a weekend …what do you think about writing the warden?? Do you think he’ll believe me? That I didn’t know it was in there? I had the same reaction as the CO when he found those papers that were dingy yellow with a pungent odor that made me sick. I had no idea that was in there!”
She wrote an email to the warden, claiming she didn’t know anything about the drugs on the papers, even though she’d told the correctional officers that the papers had just come off the printer, according to the affidavit.
Federal authorities allege that DiJoseph got papers from another detainee’s girlfriend. According to the affidavit, Samuel Douglas, a 26-year-old detainee awaiting sentencing at Wyatt, arranged for his girlfriend Hanasa Stedford, 21, to meet DiJoseph outside the prison on Dec. 1 and give her the papers. The federal authorities allege that Hart told DiJoseph to meet Stedford.
The Wyatt’s surveillance footage showed two vehicles that appeared to be driven by Steford and DiJoseph part on Blackstone Street. Stedford was seen getting out of her vehicle with a folder and walking to the passenger side of DiJoseph’s vehicle, according to the affidavit.
During a video call between Stedford and Douglas, Stedford is heard speaking with a woman after getting out of her car, according to the affidavit. Stedford told Douglas that the woman, believed to be DiJoseph, told her, “You got it all written on you’re the best.”
Shortly after that, DiJoseph entered the Wyatt to visit Hart, with the contaminated papers, according to the affidavit.
Hart, Douglas, and Stedford are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and providing a prohibited object to an inmate. Douglas, 26, is awaiting sentencing in US District Court in New Haven, Conn., for a charge of racketeering conspiracy. He was also charged in Connecticut with narcotics distribution and firearm possession offenses.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Julianne Klein and Peter I. Roklan. DiJoseph and Stedford were expected to appear in US District Court Tuesday afternoon. Hart and Douglas will make their initial appearances in US District Court at a later date.
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Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits.