Sandwich-smuggling jail nurse arrested

CHICKASHA, Okla. – Some inmates at the Grady County Jail were getting special deliveries to their cell.

Authorities there said a woman on the nursing staff for the jail was sneaking items to inmates in an unusual way.

Twenty-nine-year-old Linda Hatton was charged with three counts of bringing contraband into the Grady County Jail for a couple of inmates.

“Any inmate who took medications also got a sandwich along with those medications,” Grady County Assistant District Attorney Cortnie Cain said. “She would stick the contraband in between the pieces of bread, in between the sandwich and that’s how she smuggled that into the inmates.”

A confidential informant alerted authoritites to what was going on and when jail workers searched the inmates’ cells, they found an array of things including a package of tobacco, a Sonic hamburger, BBQ, extension cord, cell phones, cigarettes and a screw driver set.

Some of the items can be dangerous, even deadly, and investigators are not sure why Hatton did it or if she got anything in return for her efforts.

“As far as a relationship with any of those inmates,” Cain said. “That we’re not sure of.”

Hatton admitted to authorities she smuggled in the contraband.

She now sits in the same jail where she once worked.

“We do see visitors try to smuggle contraband into the jail facility,” Cain said. “However, it’s very rare that someone involved working there as a nurse or nursing personnel actually takes that risk.”

Hatton is charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor.