By Ed Treleven
The Wisconsin State Journal
DANE COUNTY, Wis. — A former Dane County Sheriff’s deputy who was fired earlier this month after investigators said she brought contraband to an inmate in jail was charged Thursday with five felonies.
Victoria A. Long, 36, of Portage, was charged with five counts of delivering illegal articles to an inmate, for bringing a radio, batteries, face wash and nicotine lozenges to one inmate, and chewing tobacco to another inmate, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.
Long, who was fired on July 11, appeared in court Thursday, where a signature bond was imposed.
The complaint does not state how investigators learned about the allegations involving the inmates, who are only identified by initials in the complaint.
According to the complaint, on July 9 Long told a sheriff’s detective that the first of the inmates had started asking her questions around the middle of May and passed her a note stating that he wanted to get to know her better.
Eventually, the complaint states, Long gave him her phone number.
She said the inmate called her, and she brought him a radio and face wash, described by another inmate as Neutrogena oil free face wash. That inmate said the man shared the radio and the face wash with everyone in the cell block. He also said that Long had brought the initial inmate nicotine lozenges.
On July 11, officers did a shakedown of the cellblock and found the playing card-size radio, along with batteries and ear buds, during a pat-down search of the inmate. He became angry, and said that he was only being punished because one of the guards had messed up.
A week later, another inmate told investigators that around the middle of June, Long had brought him chewing tobacco after having a conversation with her in which he mentioned wanting to be free and to “enjoy a dip or a smoke.” The next time he saw her, he said, she brought him the tobacco, telling him, “I made one of your dreams come true.”
The man also claimed that in late June, Long let him touch her buttocks and showed him a tattoo on one of her breasts.
Long, who had worked for the sheriff’s office for less than a year, is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 12.