Former Nassau jail nurse charged with smuggling blade to inmate

A former Nassau County Correctional Center nurse carried on a relationship with an inmate, sending him money, feeding him information on other prisoners and smuggling a ceramic blade into the jail, according to charges unsealed Thursday by the Nassau County district attorney.

Yasmin Talbot, 48, of Levittown, conspired with Christopher Wright, 37, with whom she had a prior romantic relationship, to secret the potentially deadly instrument past security after he told her that he had been threatened by other inmates, District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said.

Talbot, who worked for 10 years for the jail’s private infirmary contractor, NuHealth, was charged Thursday with promoting prison contraband, two counts of falsifying business records, two counts of filing a false instrument and misdemeanor conspiracy.

Wright, who had previously been indicted on a charge of the contraband, was charged with misdemeanor conspiracy.

Both pleaded not guilty at a midmorning arraignment in front of Nassau County Judge Terence Murphy.

Talbot, a single mother of five and a nurse for 15 years, had a prior romantic relationship with Wright, her son, Justin Talbot, 20, told Newsday, adding that he doesn't believe his mother is guilty of the charges. 

“Whatever Mr. Wright did in the jail, that shouldn’t have anything to do with her,” he said.

Her current boyfriend, Reyneldo Noel, 26, said she would not be so reckless with her position.

“This is a false accusation against her,” Noel said outside the courtroom. “She wouldn’t jeopardize her career that she worked so hard for.”

Her son said she had resigned in September from her position at the jail. On Wednesday, Nassau detectives showed up at her new job at a Hempstead nursing home to arrest her for the smuggling offense.

Nassau County Sheriff’s Department jail investigators launched their investigation in March, when a body cavity search revealed two balloons on Wright, one of them containing a sharp object that they identified as a “Slice Corner Stripping Blade.”

During the inquiry, the Sheriff’s Internal Affairs Unit found that Talbot made 400 calls to Wright and other inmates incarcerated in the facility, prosecutors said.

They also found that Talbot had contributed money to Wright’s commissary account under the name “Diamond Wright,” a violation of jail policy. Additionally, she told him the locations in the jail where other inmates were housed, officials said.

In a recorded February call in the jail, the two discussed how to smuggle the blade into the correctional center, according to the district attorney. Wright then feigned chest pains so that he could get the weapon from Talbot in the infirmary, prosecutors said.

Investigators uncovered shipping records of the same type of blade delivered to Talbot's Levittown home.

“Abuse of power by correctional employees and those who work in the facilities has a destabilizing effect on the jail population and creates potentially dangerous conditions,” Donnelly said at a news conference after the arraignments.

Wright was released on bail. Talbot had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated drunken driving with a child, a felony, in October 2022, and Thursday's charges violate the terms of her plea agreement, according to the district attorney's office. She was remanded to the Nassau jail.

Wright's lawyer, James Glynn, could not be reached for comment.