A Bay State attorney and her alleged co-conspirators are in hot water after allegedly sneaking papers soaked in synthetic marijuana into a federal prison in Rhode Island, according to prosecutors.

The residue on the alleged contraband was so strong the accused attorney got high when she attempted the hand off, according to papers in the case.

“Thank you for the money if you can put something on my commissary that would b nice,what time you want me to video you tomorrow I’ll tell you if I can? I bet u looked good today,” Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility inmate Shawn Hart messaged Massachusetts attorney Theresa DiJoseph on Aug. 3, 2023, at 9:44 p.m., showing a very familiar relationship between the pair, despite DiJoseph not being his lawyer on any known matter.

Attorney DiJoseph, 50, of Woburn; Hanasa Stedford, 21, of Hampden, Connecticut; and Wyatt Detention Facility inmates Hart, 46, and Samuel Douglas, 26, face federal charges in a complaint unsealed in federal court in Providence on Tuesday. The Wyatt prison is in Central Falls, R.I.

DiJoseph is charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, providing a prohibited object to an inmate, and making a false statement, while Stedford, Hart and Douglas are each charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and providing a prohibited object to an inmate.

DiJoseph, who was allowed to do “contact visits” with Hart despite not being the attorney on file for any of his pending legal matters, is accused of placing 10 pages of paper soaked in synthetic marijuana into the federal prison during a contact visit on Dec. 1, 2023. Such visits do not include a plexiglass screen between the inmate and a visitor and are often used for attorney-client conferences.

“The correctional officer on duty reviewed the materials DIJOSEPH indicated she wanted to bring into the contact visit with HART. In doing so, the officer observed multiple pieces of paper that appeared as though they had been wet and then dried, were thicker than normal paper, and appeared discolored,” an affidavit supporting the charges written and filed by FBI Special Agent Pepper Daigler states.

The officer, familiar with similar ways of bringing drugs into the prison, confiscated the pages. The pages were analyzed by an FBI crime lab on Feb. 2 and found to contain residue of Schedule 1 controlled substances.

A single sheet of paper coated in the synthetic drug known as “K2” can sell at Wyatt for between $1,000 and $4,000 depending on supply and demand at any given time, according to a note in the affidavit. The paper would be cut into smaller pieces that would be sold a la carte.

The handoff

Stedford and Douglas were charged as co-conspirators. The affidavit paints Douglas, another inmate, as a planner for how to get the contraband inside and Stedford — who said she was his girlfriend — as his operative on the outside to get the drugs to DiJoseph so she could use her attorney privilege to deliver them during a contact meeting.

The affidavit includes stills from security camera footage of an alleged handoff of the drugs from Stedford to DiJoseph. The two had parked in separate cars outside the federal prison. The drugs were allegedly contained in a manilla folder which Stedford and Douglas had purportedly called “the yellow folder” in recorded conversations.

DiJoseph is accused of carrying the contraband into the prison directly after this handoff.

The papers were apparently soaked in the drugs, as the officer who inspected them and directly handled them had to receive medical attention. A supervisor told DiJoseph after the papers were confiscated that her visitation rights were revoked.

“Okay I understand, but how long does this last? This feeling, when does it go away? I cannot drive like this,” DiJoseph said, indicating that she had become high by handling the pages.

She said the same thing in an alleged text exchange with Hart after she left the prison: “They found papers with drugs on them?? I feel so so light headed and messed up.”

Security camera footage from the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility shows a correctional officer inspecting the papers brought in by Massachusetts attorney Theresa DiJoseph. (Courtesy / U.S. District Court)

Security camera footage from the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility shows Massachusetts attorney Theresa DiJoseph visiting the federal prison in 2023. (Courtesy / U.S. District Court)

Hanasa Stedford, 21, of Hampden, Connecticut, is seen arriving for a visit to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in December 2023. (Courtesy / U.S. District Court)

Hanasa Stedford, 21, of Hampden, Connecticut, seen in the lobby of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in December 2023. (Courtesy / U.S. District Court)

Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility seen in 2016. (Staff photo by Matt Stone/Boston Herald)