Four charged in scheme to smuggle cellphone into ACI

Published on Thursday, March 02, 2023

An indictment, information, or complaint is merely an allegation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and Colonel Darnell S. Weaver announced today that four individuals have been charged in Providence County Superior Court for their roles in a scheme to smuggle a cell phone into the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI).

On February 21, 2023, Inesa Vinarskaya (age 60), Darrell Johnson (30), Fredrick Dahn (26), and Sequoya Reels-Felder (31) were charged by criminal information with multiple felony counts including conveying a cell phone into the ACI; conspiracy to convey a cell phone into the ACI, soliciting another to convey a cell phone into the ACI, possessing a cell phone while incarcerated in the ACI; and conspiracy to possess a cell phone in the ACI.

The defendants are scheduled to appear in Providence County Superior Court at a later date.

As alleged in the criminal information, between April 25, 2022, and July 28, 2022, the defendants executed a scheme to smuggle a cell phone into the ACI.

At the time, Inesa Vinarskaya was employed as a speech pathologist contracted to work at the ACI. It is alleged that Frederick Dahn, her patient and an inmate at the ACI, solicited her to smuggle at least one cell phone into the prison for inmates to use.

It is alleged that Inesa Vinarskaya was paid approximately $1,200 to smuggle the cell phone into the prison. It is further alleged that Frederick Dahn then provided the phone to Sequoya Reels-Felder who shared a cell with Darrell Johnson.

Following an investigation, correctional officers apprehended Sequoya Reels-Felder and Darrell Johnson in their cell while they attempted to destroy the cellphone and flush it down a toilet.

The Rhode Island State Police, the Department of Corrections Special Investigations Unit and the Office of Inspections, and the Office of the Attorney General are leading the investigation and prosecution of this case.

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