Hamden Woman, Attorney Smuggled Contraband Into Prison: Feds

HAMDEN, CT — A Hamden woman and a Massachusetts attorney are accused of participating in a scheme to smuggle contraband to two detainees at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, according to authorities.

Attorney Theresa M. DiJoseph, 50, of Woburn, Massachusetts, Hanasa Stedford, 21, of Hamden, and Wyatt Center detainees Shawn D. Hart, 46, and Samuel Douglas, 26, were charged Tuesday on federal criminal complaints at federal court in Providence, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha announced in a news release.

DiJoseph was charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, providing a prohibited object to an inmate, and making a false statement. Stedford, Hart, and Douglas were charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and providing a prohibited object to an inmate.

DiJoseph and Stedford were expected to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Providence today on Tuesday. Hart, detained at the Wyatt Detention Facility while awaiting trial on drug and firearm offenses charged in the District of Massachusetts, and Douglas, who is awaiting sentencing in U.S. District Court in New Haven, having pleaded guilty in April 2024 to a charge of racketeering conspiracy, will make their initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Providence at a later date, according to the news release.

“According to charging documents, during a visit to Wyatt on July 9, 2023, DiJoseph used her credentials as an attorney to meet with Hart in a contact visiting room (a visiting room that does not include a plexiglass screen sometimes used for attorney visits to conduct legal work),” officials wrote in the news release. “Correctional officers later filed an incident report when DiJoseph was found to be acting suspicious and monitoring the correctional officer’s movements.

“A 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.”

Authorities said that on Dec. 1, 2023, during an attempted visit with Hart, Wyatt correctional officers seized from DiJoseph “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 papers were later sent to an FBI testing lab that confirmed the presence of Schedule 1 controlled substances,” officials wrote. “It is alleged in charging documents that Wyatt detainee Samuel Douglas arranged for his girlfriend, Hanasa Stedford, to meet with DiJoseph outside of the Wyatt Detention Center on December 1, 2023, and to provide DiJoseph with the contaminated papers that were seized from DiJoseph.”