TAMPA, Fla. — A nurse employed with a company contracted to provide medical services at the Hillsborough County jail is accused of helping to distribute drugs within the facility, the sheriff's office said.
Michelle Lipinski, 32, was arrested on April 2 when she arrived to work, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office news release.
Deputies say investigators learned on March 30 that she was bringing narcotics to the Falkenburg Road Jail facility and had been assigned to work there by her employer, NaphCare, since December 2020.
She had been giving drugs to 40-year-old Seneca Dukes, an inmate who was booked in July 2020 on warrants for violating probation. He then, deputies allege, would sell the drugs to other inmates.
Detectives later identified a third person, 46-year-old Miriam Marti-Benning, who was allegedly connected to the scheme. After her arrest on April 5, she reportedly told investigators she would get heroin and methamphetamine from a man and brought them to Lipinski so they could be given to Dukes and others in the jail.
The three face several charges, including conspiracy to introduce contraband into a detention facility. The sheriff's office says an investigation is ongoing to figure whether anyone else was involved.
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