A Michigan teacher is accused of smuggling drugs, a cell phone for phone sex and money to inmates under the guise of working as a jail educator, officials said Friday.
Meredith Leyrer, 54, was arrested on Monday and faces charges of manufacturing and delivering narcotics, bringing contraband into a correctional facility and bringing a phone into a correctional facility, all felonies, Genesee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson said in a video posted to the department’s Facebook page on Friday.
Leyrer began abusing her role as an educator for the Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education (IGNITE) program last December, Swanson said.
Swanson called IGNITE an "education model, a culture change" but to "see somebody from the inside try to take that down we have to realize that nothing is sacred."
He added that the type of drug smuggling conspiracy Leyrer was allegedly involved with at the jail is difficult to undertake and those that do "use their positions of influence and trust, and they abuse it."
Leyrer, who was a teacher at Mount Morris High School, a partner with IGNITE, allegedly deposited more than $630 into three inmates accounts starting in December before she began smuggling in fentanyl pills and cans of marijuana wax.
Surveillance video from the jail allegedly showed Leyrer pass more than 100 fentanyl pills to an inmate inside a folder while they sat at a table during a lesson one day.
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"This is not a teacher this is a drug smuggler who plays the role of a teacher," Swanson said.
He said Leyrer also smuggled in cellphone into the jail "so she could have phone sex" with inmates, adding that she made more than 350 calls to inmates in December.
Swanson said Leyrer burst into tears when he told her how "disappointed" he was in her after her arrest, saying that she told him she had "low self-esteem" and had been "groomed" by the inmates.
Swanson said she began justifying her actions because of her grooming in a similar way an addict does. She remains in custody on a $20,000 bond.
Swanson promised that he wouldn’t give up on IGNITE "because of a drug smuggler."
"We’re never going to relent," he said , saying he "accepted responsibility" that Leyrer’s alleged conspiracy was able to continue for seven months before she was caught.
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"Anything good is going to be battle tested and in the end we’re going to be better for it," he added.
