A former teacher at the Colorado federal prison in Florence is charged with having an affair with an inmate and is believed to have passed on confidential information that led to a stabbing attack on an inmate informer.
Elizabeth Medina, 31, resigned after being barred from the prison on Jan. 13. She was charged Friday in federal district court with sexual abuse of a ward of the state, and faces up to a year in prison. She is charged with having a relationship with the alleged leader of the Texas Mexican Mafia gang in the prison, Jesus "Jesse" Barrientes, who is serving 77 months for a Texas conviction for possessing a gun after being convicted of a felony.
She wrote him 35 love letters, talking of her plan to become pregnant and marry him when he is released, according to an affidavit. She became pregnant in mid-July.
In court documents, inmate Joe Tamayo alleges Barrientes ordered him stabbed after Medina found out he was cooperating with prosecutors in a case in Texas against the Texas Mexican Mafia and told her lover.
In addition to monitoring cell phone calls between the two lovers, agents searched Medina's home on Jan. 13, and found hundreds of letters and photographs in a scrapbook that confirmed her relationship with the inmate.
She also is alleged to have viewed sensitive internal memos and to have smuggled letters to Barrientes.
"Especially given Barrientes' gang status, Bureau of Prisons officials have told your affiant that this activity further jeopardizes the security of the prison," said Paul Sullivan of the Justice Department in an affidavit.
Sullivan said Medina admitted having sex with Barrientes in a staff bathroom in the education department about 10 times before Barrientes was put in a special housing unit after the stabbing.
Medina had worked at the prison since 2001.