RI Federal Prisoner Admits To Smuggling In Drugs

CENTRAL FALLS, RI — A prisoner at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center, a federal prison in Central Falls, admitted last week to a judge he smuggled drugs into prison.

Shawn Hart, 46, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and obtaining or attempting to obtain prohibited objects as an inmate.

Hart admitted that, in late 2023, he and others, inside and outside Wyatt Detention Center, conspired to obtain and smuggle papers soaked with K2, a synthetic marijuana, into the facility.

On Dec. 1, 2023, sheets of paper that an FBI testing lab later confirmed had been treated with schedule I controlled substances were provided to an associate of Hart for her to smuggle into the facility and to deliver to Hart, prosecutors said. That person, Theresa Marie DiJoseph, 51, who Hart had a personal relationship with, used her status as an attorney to regularly arrange for "contact" visits with Hart, so they could meet without a plexiglass screen between them, rosecutors said. Wyatt correctional officers seized the tainted papers from DiJoseph as she attempted to enter the facility, according to prosecutors.

Hart is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18.

DiJoseph, who pleaded guilty on March 12, to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance analog, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, and providing a prohibited object to an inmate, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 12.

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