Woman accused of jail contraband

• By KIMBERLY VETTER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 23, 2008 - Page: 4B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A former employee with the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Defender’s Office was arrested Friday for allegedly providing a cell phone to a first-degree murder suspect awaiting trial in Parish Prison.

Samantha M. Moore, 40, 622 S. 14th St., Port Allen, gave Derrick Williams a cell phone during one of eight visits with him at the jail between Aug. 4 and Aug. 22, an arrest warrant says.

East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies working at the prison found the phone Aug. 24 in a cell, the warrant says. During the deputies’ investigation, the phone was tied to both Moore and Williams.

Williams, 25, 5938 Ford St., was indicted Nov. 15 on a count of first-degree murder in the Oct. 24 shooting death of Albert Mequet, a 71-year-old security guard at Pete’s Farmer’s Market.

Armed with a handgun, Williams allegedly walked into the market at 4919 Airline Highway about 4:30 a.m., took Mequet’s gun and, after demanding money, fired one shot each from both handguns at Mequet.

Prosecutor Aaron Brooks has said he will seek the death penalty in the case.

Moore, who was employed with the Public Defender’s Office until mid-August, told investigators she had been hired by Williams’ family to assist with his defense, the warrant says.

Moore admitted to investigators she interviewed Williams and conducted a private investigation into his case while visiting the prison as an employee of the Public Defender’s Office, the warrant says.

She denied giving Williams the phone and calling it to speak with him, the warrant says. Cell-phone records, however, show 100 incoming calls between Aug. 7 and Aug. 25 from Moore’s cell phone to the cell phone found at Parish Prison.

Mike Mitchell, director of the Public Defender’s Office, says in the warrant that Moore was not affiliated with Williams’ case and that her position at the office was not as an investigator.

“Her position was to interview inmates who had cases pending in Baton Rouge City Court to determine if they could hire a private attorney or if they needed the services of the Public Defender’s Office,” he says in the warrant.

Mitchell said Monday that Moore was terminated on or about Aug. 21, but that he was not at liberty to say why. He said she had worked at the office since August 2005.

“I do not tolerate inappropriate or unethical behavior from any employees with the Public Defender’s Office,” he said, adding that when he’s apprised of such behavior it is taken care of immediately.