*A now ex-prison officer in Florida has been charged with two counts of sexual misconduct, two counts of conspiracy to introduce contraband, and 67 counts of unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior.
According to court documents, Sgt. Lawana Mekell Sharpe, who worked at the Graceville Correctional Facility for over four years, allegedly had sex with an inmate, smuggled contraband into the prison, and accepted more than $12,000 in electronic payments. She now faces more than 70 criminal charges.
The investigation into her behavior began on September 30, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The investigation was triggered after a discovery by employees performing routine monitoring of JPay (the prison’s inmate payment and communication system) of strange discrepancies in one inmate’s account.
The employees alerted investigators, who found “what appeared to be a fictitious J-pay [sic] account in the name ‘Candy Williams’ sending Inmate [Redacted] messages. The investigators dug in further.
The affidavit states, “Upon further research of Candy Williams’ account, it was discovered the account information listed on the Candy Williams J-pay account was linked to Sergeant Sharpe.”
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A week after the discovery and as the investigation went on, Sharpe was accused of being in a sexual relationship with an inmate. The Florida Department of Corrections Office of the inspector General started another inquiry to investigate the new allegations.
On being interviewed by the investigators, the inmate stated that he got to know Sharpe in his first few months at the facility and she provided him with her personal cell phone number. The inmate’s name is redacted from the affidavit.
The police report further says the inmate also admitted he had been communicating with Sharpe on the recorded inmate phone, on a contraband cell phone, and through the Facebook messenger app.
“According to Inmate [Redacted], he and Sergeant Sharpe’s relationship escalated to the point he and Sergeant Sharpe began to have Sexual intercourse while in B-dormitory,” the affidavit reads. “Inmate [Redacted] advised Sergeant Sharpe would perform oral sex on him every night she worked. Inmate [Redacted] and Sergeant Sharpe had vaginal intercourse 5-6 times in different areas of B-dormitory.”
Sharpe, in her sworn interrogation to the investigators, is said to have admitted that she created the fake Candy Williams JPay account to evade detection by staff whenever she communicated with the inmate. To achieve this, she used her personal cell phone number and her brother’s physical address, according to the investigators’ report.
She also confessed to having had a sexual affair with the inmate, but her version of how frequently this happened differs from what the inmate told the police. According to her, they never had vaginal intercourse; she only performed oral sex on the inmate twice: once in a room with a kiosk and another time in an officer’s station. This is based on her confessions, as recorded in the affidavit.
According to court documents, she also admitted that she once concealed 305 cigars wrapped in cellophane in her panties and another time smuggled 305 cigars in her vagina. She then hid the contraband among cleaning supplies used by inmates.
Furthermore, a subpoena for her Cash App account showed that between January and October 2021, she received 67 separate electronic payments amounting to $12,160 from eight different accounts — all of which were identified as inmates, inmates’ families, or known associates of inmates.
She will also face one count each of unlawful use of a two-way communication device and interference with prisoners.
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