A woman who worked as a nurse at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Institution in Youngstown when she allegedly conspired with others in 2021 to smuggle tobacco and other items into the private prison and provide them to inmates in exchange for money was granted travel privileges during a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

The indictment of defendant Alexis Schneider alleges that she was a “public official” when she allegedly conspired with others from June 29, 2021, to Sept. 14, 2021, to get paid on CashApp, a mobile payment service, in exchange for “contraband” in the prison.

David Betras, who represents Schneider, told The Vindicator this is not the Alexis Schneider whose son, Rowan Sweeney, 4, was shot to death Sept. 21, 2022, at a home on Perry Street in Struthers.

The Alexis Schneider in the prison case filed a motion recently asking U.S. District Court Judge Dan A. Polster for permission to travel to Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

Her filing states that she booked the trip in March. The non-refundable trip is Sept. 17 to Sept. 26, her filing states. She was indicted on three charges Aug. 6 and turned herself in Aug. 12. She was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Youngstown, then released on $20,000 bond, according to court documents. As part of the conditions of her bond, she turned in her passport, according to her motion, which was filed by Betras.

Federal prosecutors, however, oppose her request to travel and receive her passport back, stating that Schneider agreed at her arraignment to turn over her passport and agreed to not travel outside of the Northern District of Ohio. Schneider did not tell anyone during an interview with federal pretrial services officials or during her arraignment about any pre-planned travel plans, stated Rebecca Lutzko, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio; and Colleen Egan, assistant U.S. attorney.

Furthermore, during her interview, she reported only having a checking account with a balance of -$200 and no assets, the government filing states. “However, in May of 2024, defendant traveled to Lisbon, Spain, for 10 days. And based on defendant’s motion to travel, defendant paid $4,338 for a nine-day trip in Europe for this September,” prosecutors stated.

“Based on the investigation of this case, the government is concerned about defendant’s truthfulness to pretrial services regarding her finances. The government has concerns regarding the defendant traveling out of the country while appearing to be hiding assets from pretrial services and this Honorable Court,” the filing states.

During the investigation, investigators learned of mobile financial accounts, specifically CashApp, Venmo and Moneygram, which Schneider used to receive payments and then moved the money into bank accounts, the filing states.

On Aug. 14, she had a balance of $130,298, the filing states. And as part of the investigation, the government seized $45,401 from Schneider’s bank account.

The docket for Schneider’s case states that during Tuesday’s hearing, Schneider was expected to “produce financial records explaining the allegations” made by prosecutors. But the docket does not explain how the issue was resolved, only states that her request to travel to Europe was approved.

Schneider has a hearing at 10 a.m. Nov. 26 in the Cleveland federal courthouse captioned a “pretrial conference, change of plea hearing.”

Schneider’s indictment alleges she committed conspiracy to provide contraband in prison, accepting bribes and providing tobacco to an inmate.

The contraband charge alleges that from June 29, 2021, to Sept. 14, 2021, Schneider conspired with others to provide and attempt to provide objects, including tobacco, to an inmate at NEOCC who was in custody.

The defendants and their co-conspirators smuggled the contraband into the private prison, then the defendants and their co-conspirators would sell the contraband to prison inmates and get paid on CashApp, the indictment states.

The indictment states that under Schneider’s bribery charge, she shall forfeit to the government all proceeds from the sale of the prohibited items to inmates. The total is $45,401, which was seized from a Schneider bank account at Huntington National Bank Sept. 21, 2023, the filing states.

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