KANSAS CITY (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a former Missouri public defender employee on charges that she smuggled heroin into a state prison.
The indictment returned March 26, says that 43-year-old Juliane Colby, of Shawnee, Kansas, hid the drugs in 2019 in an envelope marked “Legal Mail” that contained other information related to a criminal court case.
She faces charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin, illegal use of a communication facility and attempted distribution of heroin. Colby also is accused of trying to bring other contraband into the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron.
Colby was charged with a similar crime while she was working as a mitigation specialist with the Missouri Public Defender office roughly 3 ½ years ago.
In 2017, Colby was accused of helping Ce-Antonyo Kennedy, a client who was awaiting trial in the killing of a 14-year-old girl, conceal a cell phone in the Jackson County Detention Center. Kennedy was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Colby and Kennedy shared text messages with each other, many of them romantic and sexual in nature, according to court records.
A request for comment sent to the federal public defender listed as Colby’s legal representative went unanswered Friday.