Passing PCP, pot to prisoner puts Arkansas woman behind bars

An Arkansas woman is behind bars after investigators said they discovered her smuggling drugs and tobacco into the Lawton Correctional Facility.

Debra Diana Hardy, 58, of Texarkana, Ark., made her initial appearance Tuesday in Comanche County District Court where she was charged with a count of bringing drugs into a jail/penal institution, records indicate. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Hardy was arrested shortly before noon on Sunday at the prison, 8607 SE Flower Mound Road. A prison investigator told Lawton police she’d been caught trying to pass drugs to an inmate after receiving a tip that morning, the probable cause affidavit states. The prison’s security cameras caught her reach into her waistband and pass something into the inmate’s sock.

Investigators recovered two eye-dropper bottles with a yellow liquid that “tested positive for amphetamines/PCP,” as well as two grams of marijuana and 34 grams of tobacco, the affidavit states.

Hardy admitted to bringing the contraband and said she’d done it once before. She told police she comes from Arkansas and stops south of Oklahoma City to pick up and bring to the prison, according to the affidavit.

Held on $20,000 bond, Hardy returns to court at 3 p.m. July 10 for her preliminary hearing conference.