Employee of arrested in contraband case
Contraband destined for Oklahoma County jail inmates was intercepted last weekend and a contracted health employee who worked at the jail was arrested, authorities said.
On the same day that Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan praised the jail for making strides in the right direction, the latest incident of an employee involved in nefarious activities was announced by jail Administrator Greg Williams. The employee, a medical assistant contracted through Turnkey Medical, was responsible for delivering medications to inmates.
“A special investigations unit was following up on a potential drop and some intel that they had received, and they did arrest a medical contracted employee who was bringing in about 14 bundles of K2, marijuana, meth and fentanyl, as well as some tobacco,” Williams said during the jail trust meeting Monday.
According to a probable cause affidavit provided by the jail, Tkeyah Wallace was arrested Saturday for Introduction of contraband into a penal facility. The affidavit states that investigators at the jail received a tip about Wallace passing contraband to inmates on the eighth and 10th floors during the course of her job, which led to a review of surveillance footage.
“I observed an inmate walk over to the medical cart while the Medical Escort Officer and Wallace were on the 2nd Tier of 10th Floor Baker Pod and grab the trash bag from the trash bin,” said criminal investigator Daniel Lazar in the affidavit. “The inmate walked away underneath the tier and can be observed on video stuffing the trash bag into the front of his pants.”
According to the affidavit, Wallace was interviewed when she arrived for her shift at the jail Saturday. During the interview, she identified several inmates, including an ex-boyfriend, to whom she had been delivering items in the jail since about three weeks after beginning her employment in July 2021.
Wallace is also told investigators she “messed her entire life up.”
Upon searching her belongings, two potato chip bags “resealed with an adhesive substance” were found, officials said. The bags contained multiple “bundles of unidentified objects wrapped in black electrical tape, along with tattoo ink and eighteen packaged tattoo needles,” according to the affidavit.
Wallace also gave investigators permission to search her cell phone and car. Wallace admitted she had been paid around $9,000 for her role in bringing items into the jail. When investigators searched her vehicle, they located two additional potato chip bags containing items bundled in black electrical tape, including cell phones and unidentified pills, authorities said.
Wallace’s arrest is the latest in a series of contraband events that have plagued the jail. In February, two jailers were arrested for smuggling various items. A contract employee of the jail’s commissary provider was arrested in July after he was alleged to have carried marijuana, loose leaf tobacco, cigarettes and cell phones into the jail.
Convicted serial killer William Lewis Reece was alleged to have been found with a cell phone in the jail in August.