A Louisiana defense lawyer was arrested for attempting to smuggle prescription painkillers into a jail for an inmate, authorities said.
Michael Fontenot was arrested by U.S. Marshals at his Baton Rouge home Tuesday on felony charges of criminal conspiracy and trying to bring contraband into a prison, news outlets reported.
According to an affidavit, the 71-year-old is accused of coordinating with a work-release inmate to bring the powerful opioid Percocet into the West Baton Rouge Parish Jail. The sheriff’s office learned of the plan when reviewing calls made on a jail phone line at the end of March between Fontenot and the worker.
A detective wrote in the affidavit that the lawyer agreed to give the drugs to the worker, who would then smuggle them into the jail for an inmate in physical pain, The Advocate reported. Investigators determined during their probe that this sort of distribution had happened before.
More at https://apnews.com/article/la-state-wire-louisiana-8239684516f96ae583158ed7632f5dd0
