HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A Houston defense attorney and two other people were arrested Wednesday on charges they participated in a scheme to smuggle drug-containing papers into the Harris County jail.

Hunter Hays Simmons, 39, was arrested around 7:30 a.m. at his apartment in downtown Houston. State records show he has been a licensed attorney since 2013.

Tanisha D. Butler, 40, and Joshua J. Piper, 22, were also arrested Wednesday, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. All three are accused of participating in organized criminal activity and prohibited substances in a correctional facility; These crimes are punishable by imprisonment from two to 20 years.

On Wednesday night, Simmons and Butler made their first court appearance. The hearing officer set bail for both defendants at $75,000 total; $40,000 charge of participating in organized criminal activity and $35,000 prohibited substance charge.

Piper then appeared in court Thursday morning, where the judge set his bond at $100,000 total — $50,000 for each charge.

Investigators believe Butler and Piper delivered the drugs to Simmons, who then smuggled them into the prison in sheets laced with synthetic marijuana during visits with his client, Joseph Dunn. Dunn recently pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

It was revealed in court that investigators had been listening to recorded phone calls from the prison in a bid to foil the alleged plot.

“The majority of phone calls to inmates are recorded, and there is no right to privacy unless it is a privileged communication, such as with a lawyer, but it has to be done in a certain way. So there were a lot of phone calls between various people,” a hearing officer read in court.

Several pieces of paper were seized last week, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office said Simmons was identified as an accomplice in a possible drug trafficking operation stemming from an unrelated human trafficking investigation. The alleged criminal activity dates back to February, according to court records.

Simmons is not the first defense attorney to face similar charges. The sheriff’s office said in November 2023, 78-year-old Ronald Lewis was charged with two counts of prohibited substance at a correctional facility after he was caught on surveillance camera smuggling paper containing drugs. Jason Johnson, 42, was also charged in August following a separate investigation.

The arrests come after Sheriff Ed Gonzalez created the Criminal Investigations and Security Division in 2023 to crack down on drugs and trafficking following several fatal overdoses at the jail.

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