Jackson County jail worker got phones for inmates, destroyed the evidence: indictment
A health and behavioral services manager who worked for the Jackson County Detention Center is accused in federal court of smuggling cellphones to two inmates and then deleting her own phone to thwart the investigation.
Amanda J. Davis, 36, was indicted Monday by a federal grand jury in the Western District of Missouri on a single count of obstruction of justice, according to court records. The charge alleges she knowingly deleted evidence relevant to a federal investigation.
According to court records, Davis used her position as a jail employee to bring two inmates cellphones in July 2020. She allegedly discussed amounts and accounts to make financial transactions with one inmate’s wife and another inmate directly.
A correctional officer later caught the inmates with the phones. Davis was taken by police to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office headquarters and her cellphone was seized.
After meeting with her attorney at the sheriff’s office, she allegedly had her lawyer ask police if she could have her phone back to retrieve a telephone number. They gave her the phone back.
That’s when she restored her phone to its factory settings and wiped all of the call logs and text messages on it, authorities allege. It was later examined by a digital forensic expert and rendered “of no investigative value” because of the reset, court records said.
The felony with which Davis was charged this week carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
