NEW ORLEANS, LA
SONJA DYSON EVANS, 58, of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, pled guilty last week to using cell phones to carry out a bribery scheme, according to officials.
Evans is charged with the interstate facility with the intent to carry on the unlawful activity, officials stated
According to the bill of information, at the time of the offense, EVANS was employed by the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office as a Criminal Records Division Supervisor.
From January 2016 through January 2017, EVANS, along with a co-defendant, Shawanda Dove, numerous calls from jail inmates and their family members requesting a bond, officials stated.
Dove, a Tangipahoa resident, doesn’t have a licensed bail bonds business.
Dove would contact Evans by cellphone to request a bond for a jail inmate. Evans would give Dove a price for the bond. Dove told the person or persons seeking the bond. When the family of the incarcerated person paid the fee to Dove, Evans would prepare the paperwork, according to officials.
For collateral on these bonds, Evans used properties belonging to people who were unaware of the bond, didn’t know the incarcerated person, and had not given consent to do so, officials stated.
Evans notarized the bond documents knowing they had forged signatures of the property owners, officials stated. Evans then took the forged paperwork to Dove in exchange for money, officials stated.
“The money received was not properly recorded in the Criminal Records Division, but instead kept by Dyson Evans or shared with other employees,” court records indicate.”
Dove kept a portion of the money and gave the inmate’s relative the bond paperwork, officials stated.
Evans and co-conspirators received about $31,000 in bribe payments, according to officials.
EVANS faces a maximum penalty of five (5) years incarceration, a $250,000 fine, officials stated.