Michigan attorney faces 20-year felony charge in prison smuggling case

LANSING – A Kent County lawyer is dealing with a 20-year cost for making an attempt to smuggle medication right into a mid-Michigan jail.

Jayne Ashley Carver, 42, who has a regulation agency in Belmont, about 9 miles north of Grand Rapids, was arraigned Oct. 7 in 65B District Court docket in Ithaca on misdemeanor expenses, Gratiot County Prosecutor Laura Bever mentioned Oct. 21. The costs stem from an Aug. 4 incident through which Carver handed a package deal to an inmate throughout an attorney-client go to to the Central Michigan Correctional Facility in St. Louis, Bever informed the Detroit Free Press.

Officers searched the inmate and located 211 strips of paper movie believed to be the narcotic Suboxone, plus 68 grams of a brown, waxy substance and 45 grams of a white powder, the Michigan Division of Corrections mentioned in an August information launch. Michigan State Police later searched the lawyer’s automobile exterior the jail and located extra suspected Suboxone and white powder, the information launch mentioned.

Carver, who was transferred to Gratiot County Circuit Court docket, is charged with supply of methamphetamine, a 20-year felony, supply of a managed substance, introduction of contraband right into a jail and possession of a narcotic drug, Bever mentioned.

“That is extremely severe,” Bever mentioned. “Legal professionals are anticipated to have increased requirements in the case of the way in which we work together with our purchasers.”

Carver, who makes a speciality of felony regulation and felony appeals in keeping with her State Bar of Michigan itemizing, didn’t reply to telephone and e-mail messages left Oct. 21 searching for remark.

Carver’s court docket look has not but been scheduled, Bever mentioned.

“This restoration protected numerous people from potential sickness, overdoses or violence related to the sale of those medication or from folks underneath the affect,” MDOC Director Heidi Washington mentioned within the August information launch.

It is uncommon for legal professionals to be accused of smuggling medication into Michigan prisons.

In 2023, a Livonia lawyer was arrested and charged with smuggling medication into Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.