Prison Inmate and Visitor Both Sentenced

INDIANAPOLIS—Joseph H. Hogsett, United States Attorney, announced today that U.S. District Judge Jane E. Magnus-Stinson sentenced Heather A. Maniglia, 24, of Bolingbrook, Ill., to three months home detention and Robert Thomas, 24, an inmate of the Federal Correctional Complex - Terre Haute to nine months in prison to be served consecutive to his current sentence. Both Maniglia and Thomas admitted their guilt to collaborating to introduce contraband (marijuana) into a federal prison. This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

During the investigation, Thomas admitted that during visitation on April 3, 2010, Heather Maniglia passed him two balloons filled with marijuana which he swallowed prior to intervention by the staff. She did this by placing the balloons inside a bag of Doritos and using her daughter as a distraction. Thomas reached into the bag, ingested some of the contents, and then took multiple drinks of a beverage that Maniglia provided him. Thomas later passed the balloons under controlled circumstances in the prison.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Warden, who prosecuted the case for the government, Judge Magnus-Stinson also ordered Maniglia be under supervised release for an additional three years.