Woman charged with impersonating lawyer at Tangipahoa jail

A Hammond woman is facing multiple charges after Tangipahoa Parish sheriff’s deputies say she posed as an attorney in order to speak with inmates at the parish jail.

According to a TPSO spokesperson, Connie Jones went to the jail on Friday and told jailers that she was the lawyer representing two inmate incarcerated there. The spokesperson says at the same time Jones presented herself as an attorney, investigators were at the jail to rebook the same two inmates Jones wanted to visit. Those investigators, the spokesperson says, know who the inmates’ real attorney is and began investigating Jones’s background.

That investigation, the spokesperson says, confirmed that Jones is not an attorney or paralegal. Deputies then arrested Jones on false presentation, practicing law without a license, and criminal trespassing charges.

Another person who was waiting in Jones’s car while she went inside the jail was arrested on drugs charges after deputies say they found synthetic cannabis in that person’s possession.

The attempted jail breach comes two months after four inmates at the Tangipahoa Parish Jail escaped. The sheriff’s office recently completed security enhancements at the jail to prevent other escapes and security breaches.