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Jail Nurse Loses Job Over Leftovers

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By MIKE WELLS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 14, 2007

TAMPA - She wrote him letters, accepted his many phone calls and even gave him money, officials said. But that's not what put a nurse at Falkenburg Road Jail behind bars Thursday.

It was the leftovers Lisa Ann Mendez took to an inmate in her lunch bag that brought felony charges, officials said.

On July 10, Mendez, a 35-year-old contract nurse with Armor Correctional Health Care Services Inc., began an "inappropriate relationship" with inmate James Lee Johnson, 37, Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Johnson is a registered sex offender and has been in jail since April on two battery charges, state and jail records show. He was convicted in 1991 of lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim younger than 16.

While incarcerated in the jail, Johnson performed trusty duties in the infirmary, where Mendez worked.

"I don't think it was a romantic relationship as much as it was a relationship formed for being in the same confined space from day to day," Carter said.

Other inmates notified a supervisor about the relationship, the spokeswoman said.

During the course of several months, Mendez gave Johnson her cell phone number and detectives found that Johnson tried to contact or made contact with Mendez more than 500 times with her cell phone, according to Carter.

Mendez deposited about $100 in Johnson's canteen fund and sent several letters to him at the jail, Carter said.

When questioned, the nurse told investigators she often brought Johnson food along with her lunch, Carter said, noting that the nurse was aware she wasn't supposed to be doing this. Both were charged with a felony of introduction of contraband into a detention facility.

Mendez was released Thursday after posting $2,000 bail. A spokeswoman for Armor Correctional Health Care Services said she was fired after her security clearance at the jail was revoked by the sheriff's office.

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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