Charges requested for Morgan County Jail nurse accused of having affair with inmate
UPDATE 3:00 pm: The Morgan County Sheriff’s Department confirms the three employees are no longer employed at the jail.
Philips was an employee of Advance Correctional Health Care who the jail contacted for medical care.
Knipp and Hoover were both terminated in November.
ORIGINAL STORY: Charges have been requested for three Morgan County Jail employees after officers learned of a secret affair between a nurse and an inmate.
According to the probable cause statement, Janet Phillips’s ex-boyfriend told deputies that they had recently broken up over an affair that Phillips was having with inmate Vernon Parker.
The ex-boyfriend told deputies that Phillips had admitted to the the affair.
Deputies said the ex-boyfriend had found two love letters and a cell phone in Phillips’s car. The ex-boyfriend believed that Phillips was receiving text messages from Parker.
Officers said when they interviewed Philips, she admitted to having sex at the Morgan County Jail with Parker.
Deputies said they found the reported cell phone, a pregnancy test, a red sexual device and a Power of Attorney from Parker to Phillips in her car.
Phillips told deputies that she believed she was pregnant by Parker and texted a photograph of a positive pregnancy test to Morgan County Detention Officer Elizabeth Knipp and asked Knipp to show the photo to Parker.
According to the probable cause statement, Phillips believed she had sex with Parker at least five times in the Inmate Property Room at the jail.
Phillips admitted to deputies that she also brought tobacco pouches into the jail for Parker.
Deputies said they found text messages between Phillips and Knipp talking about the pregnancy.
Officers said they talked with Knipp, who alleged that Phillips brought a cell phone into the jail and it was kept in the property room for Parker to use.
Knipp told deputies that she was paid $100 by Phillips to keep quiet about her actions. Knipp also admitted to sending and receiving text messages on her cell phone to Phillips and Parker.
Knipp alleged that Detention Officer Robert Hoover was also aware of the affair between Phillips and Parker.
Deputies said when they spoke with Hoover, he admitted to knowing about the inappropriate relationship between Phillips and Parker.
Hoover admitted to officers that Phillips and Parker would spend large amounts of time in the property room and that he would send and receive text messages on his phone for Phillips and Parker.
Hoover told deputies that Phillips told him that when Parker was released they were going to start a life together.
