A former Howard County Jail correctional officer who pleaded guilty last month to providing drugs to inmates on several occasions was sentenced this week to five years in the Indiana Department of Correction.
Emily Harvey, 33, will spend two of those years on in-home detention, according to court records, with the remaining three spent on supervised probation, after pleading guilty to a Level 5 felony charge of trafficking with an inmate and a Level 6 felony charge of official misconduct.
Court officials state that two other charges, a Level 3 felony charge of dealing a schedule III in a penal or juvenile facility and a Level 6 felony charge of possession of a controlled substance, were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Harvey had been a correctional officer at the HCJ for four months at the time of her arrest in February 2022.
Her charges stem from an investigation that began when detectives received information of trafficking that was reportedly occurring at the jail, court records note.
Further investigation indicated that on at least three occasions during her four months of employment, Harvey had met with an individual at a local store, received suboxone and THC vape pens and then delivered those items to several inmates inside the facility, per court records.
According to the CDC, suboxone is a combination medication that is used to treat opioid addiction and can be deadly if taken improperly.
On Feb. 8, 2022, investigators observed Harvey on a unit that she was not assigned to in the proximity of a cell that housed an inmate she was reportedly trafficking with, court records stated.
That prompted an immediate lockdown of that particular unit, and police note Harvey was escorted to an interview room to speak with detectives while other investigators searched the cell in question.
That cell search reportedly turned up a vape pen that tested positive for the presence of THC, court records noted.
And during a subsequent warranted search of Harvey’s vehicle, police located and seized a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos bag, along with two nicotine vape pens.
Inside the Cheetos bag, according to court records, authorities recovered a “clear plastic baggy containing what looked to be several small orange pills” that ended up being suboxone.
During an interview with police, Harvey reportedly confessed to trafficking the drugs and stated she did so in an exchange for money that was sent to a PayPal account.