CLEARFIELD – A Woodland woman accused of concealing a broken up pill in a towel and conspiring for it to be delivered in a bag to an inmate at the Clearfield County Jail waived the charges to court Wednesday.
Tonya Dawn Wright, 30, of Woodland has been charged by the Lawrence Township police with one count each of conspiracy/manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver and conspiracy/contraband-controlled substance.
She has also been charged with nine counts of criminal use of a communication facility; two counts of false reports; and one count each of intentional possession of a controlled substance and furnishing authorities with information without knowledge. Bail has been set at $25,000 unsecured.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on Feb. 2 police were dispatched to the county jail for a drug violation that involved contraband being inside the correctional facility.
A jail official was inside the entrance with a female who had arrived with a plastic bag with clothes. Pills were allegedly found to be concealed along the stitching of a towel, which was intended for an inmate.
Upon arrival police made contact with the jail official and the female who had brought the bag in for Jarred Peters. She agreed to speak with police privately and related that upon Peters’ request and arrangement, she’d received a text message to meet two of his friends at AutoZone, as they were unable to deliver the bag to him.
Police went outside to the female’s vehicle to photograph three images of text messages she had exchanged. She voluntarily provided them to police, as well as agreed to submit a written statement.
Police returned to the department to log the evidence and identify the pills. It was found to be a pill broken into four, smaller pieces and then placed into the stitching along the edge of the towel. It was identified as buprenorphine hydrochloride, a narcotic under the controlled substance act.
On Feb. 2 police received one page of phone records and one page containing people who were permitted to call a male inmate that included a phone number associated with Wright. According to jail records, this inmate had called her 19 times since Dec. 17, 2015 and twice on Feb. 2.
On Feb. 9 police interviewed Wright about the incident and she allegedly admitted that she had delivered the bag to a family member of Peters at AutoZone. She told police she’d picked it up from someone else in another vehicle at the Clearfield Mall.
Wright said she wasn’t able to recall a description of the vehicle but had gotten the bag from it. She claimed that she didn’t have any idea about the contraband concealed within a towel.
She also said she didn’t know the driver of the vehicle and had simply received a text from an unfamiliar number to meet to pick up the bag.
During the progression of the interview, Wright told police Peters had contacted her via telephone using another inmate’s account about nine times. It was about attempting to deliver concealed contraband to the jail, and she’d declined numerous times, she said.
According to her, on Feb. 2 she and a friend had parked above the jail and observed police questioning the female who received the bag from her. They immediately left because she didn’t want anything to do with the police, she said.
Wright continued to deny any involvement and or knowledge so far as the contents of the bag. She said she’d simply retrieved it from an unknown person and turned it over to Peters’ family member.
On Feb. 14 police interviewed Wright a second time about the incident. She allegedly admitted that she’d lied to police during the first interview and agreed to provide a written statement.
In her written statement, Wright related that Peters had called her from the jail and asked to bring clothes. She was also asked to “put stuff” in the towel and she’d told him no because she didn’t want to lose her family.
She told police that Peters had told her to contact a family member to do it, and she didn’t know about the stuff in the towel. “I, Tonya, am the one that put it in the towel,” she wrote, adding she’d refused to take it to the jail.
Wright admitted that she’d purchased pills from an “un-provided source” and broken one up to place in the stitching of the towel per Peters’ request, according to the affidavit.
She also apologized for lying to police, saying she was afraid of losing her child. She said she’d decided to be honest because it was the right thing to do.
Wright told police she really didn’t want to be involved, but Peters was being “pushy and persistent” and she wanted to help her fiancé with his habit, as well. Police noted Wright was honest and cooperative during the second interview about the incident.
On June 13 police received laboratory analysis that confirmed the pill was buprenorphine.
Peters has been charged with conspiracy/contraband-controlled substance and criminal use of a communication facility. His preliminary hearing has been set for Oct. 12 at the jail.
