A former nurse at a Montana men’s prisons said  “I still claim my innocence” that she was guilty of having unauthorized sexual contact with male prisoners at a drug treatment facility at which she worked, but recordings of her telephone call showed that she was anything but innocent.  Jurors at her trial were subjected to hours of recordings of her telephone conversations with prisoners in which both she and other prisoners discussed exchanged sexually explicit details that showed that they had been intimate.  She was sentenced by unsympathetic judge Raymond Dayton to 25 years at the Montana Women’s Prison, with ten years suspended if she successfully completed sexual offender counseling.

Tisha Ann Brunell had worked at the Sanction, Treatment, Assessment, Revocation and Transition (START) facility in Anaconda, Montana, and in addition to the authorized sex with prisoners charge was accused and convicted of smuggling contraband to those she was supposed to be treating, as well as 43 misdemeanor counts of unauthorized sexual contact.  However, while being held in pretrial detention, she also proved intractable in her sexual desires.

Prosecutors argued that while confined awaiting trial she asked for a conjugal visit with a male prisoner and attempted to have herself transferred into the area populated by male sex offenders. In addition, she also was accused of using prisoners as muscle to collect drug debts, and also stood accused of witness tampering.

According to Montana Probation Officer Tara Bilteen, “It shows me that she did the crime she was found guilty of and tried to hide it…and (s)he hasn’t learned anything from her current charges.” 

Source: “Prison nurse who had sex with inmate gets 25 years,” by Angela Brandt, www.mtstandard.com/news, August 6, 2014. 

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