Walker County corrections officer charged with smuggling contraband for cash
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
A Walker County corrections officer has been charged with two counts of promoting prison contraband after the sheriff’s office said she smuggled cell phones into the county jail for inmates in exchange for cash.
Billie Joe Hester, 44, of Adamsville, had been a corrections officer at the Walker County Jail for about two months when Richard Calloway, the jail’s administrator, told Sheriff Nick Smith that Hester was suspected of smuggling contraband into the jail.
“We take any allegations of misconduct against our employees seriously. Most of the time those claims are unfounded, especially from inmates, but in this case there was merit to the information we received,” Smith said in a statement Wednesday. “When that happens, we treat those cases just like any other and prosecute them to the fullest. Our employees are not above the law and they know the standard I hold them to