Oshen Heilman mug

Oshen Heilman, via Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office

A New Orleans jail guard this week admitted to having sexual contact with one murder suspect and bringing contraband such as drugs and cigarettes to him and two other murder suspects, according to court records.

Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office Deputy Oshen Heilman, 25, was booked on counts of sexual battery, illegal possession with the intent to distribute marijuana and pharmaceuticals, introduction of contraband into a penal institution, and conspiracy to introduce contraband.

The Sheriff's Office said it fired Heilman on Tuesday night. 

According to court records, agents with the Sheriff's Office's Intelligence Division interviewed Heilman hours before her arrest.

She allegedly waived her right to remain silent, describing how — in return for $500 — she had smuggled a package of marijuana, pills, cigarettes, suboxone, rolling papers, dice and an unspecified "powdered white substance" for rapper Widner "Flow" Degruy, who is awaiting trial in the Memorial Day 2015 shooting deaths of two brothers in New Orleans East.

She said she also brought Ibuprofen and Percocet pills on multiple occasions to inmate Michael Monroe, who is awaiting trial in connection with a deadly November 2015 shooting in Central City. She said she was romantically involved with Monroe, and they had fondled each other's genitals in the jail, even though inmates can't legally consent to sexual activity, according to court records.

Further, Heilman said, she once brought cigarettes to Sedrick Conerly, who is awaiting trial in a deadly April 2016 stabbing on the edge of the French Quarter.

Heilman allegedly told her interviewers she had contraband in the trunk of her Toyota Corolla. She gave permission to the Sheriff's Office to search her car, and deputies found a handbag containing 16 white pills, three clear plastic bags with what appeared to be synthetic marijuana, one plastic bag with what appeared to be tobacco, and three blue and white packs labeled suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction.

"All items were packaged in a manner consistent with concealment for delivery into the jail," court records said.

WWL-TV reported that Heilman had been assigned to an inmate pod in the direct-supervision jail, meaning that she came into regular contact with inmates during her shifts. She had been working for the agency for about 18 months.

The new jail features constant security camera surveillance throughout the facility, intended to lower the instances of violence and contraband at the lockup. WWL-TV reported that Sheriff's Office investigators were gathering video of Heilman's activities at the jail.

Heilman was the second Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office deputy to be arrested in four days. Authorities on Saturday arrested Dernisha Harvey on a count of abuse of office following allegations that she pulled out her Sheriff's Office badge and threatened to arrest two customers who had refused to pay $40 for alcohol shots she sold them at her second job at a Bourbon Street daiquiri shop.

Follow Ramon Antonio Vargas on Twitter, @RVargasAdvocate.

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