May 25, 2013
Friday, Jan. 18, 2013
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW) -- An employee at the Augusta State Medical prison is accused of smuggling cellphones, tobacco and cigarettes inside the facility.
Melissa Lenett Brown, 34, has been charged with giving convicts articles without consent of the warden and trading with convicts without permission. She was arrested and taken to the Richmond County Jail.
The Richmond County Sheriff's Office was called to the prison on Wednesday when an inmate was found with contraband.
After that, the prison searched every employee and used a K-9 to sniff out employees' vehicles. They found receipts for large amounts of tobacco, cigarettes, cellphones and a Green Dot card inside of Brown's car.
Brown admitted to bringing the items inside the facility and said she had been doing it for a month. She said one of the inmates would pay her via cash or debit card for $600 or $700 at a time.
Brown told investigators she would hide the contraband inside her clothes when walking through the checkpoint.
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