By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

COLUMBIA CITY — Two people are facing charges after an alleged attempted drug trafficking incident at the Whitley County Jail.

Ashley Lynn Riecke

Isaah M. Hough

Ashley Lynn Riecke, 32, 207 Spencer St., Columbia City, is charged with aiding, inducing or causing dealing in a schedule III controlled substance and aiding, inducing or causing trafficking with an inmate, both level 5 felonies.

Isaah M. Hough, 21, 1734 E. 225S Apartment 13, Winona Lake, is charged with aiding, inducing or causing trafficking with an inmate, a level 5 felony.

On Dec. 28, 2022, Whitley County’s jail commander informed a Whitley County Sheriff’s Department detective about confinement staff intercepting a letter addressed to Hough. The envelope was mailed on Nov. 30, 2022.

On Dec. 15, 2022, the detective investigated a separate case in which the return address used on the envelope mailed in November, was also used in that incident. The return address was discovered to be fictitious. In the Dec. 15 matter, the envelopes contained suboxone and fentanyl.

According to court documents, the envelope mailed on Nov. 30, 2022, contained suboxone.

The detective also found jail phone and video calls in which Riecke and Hough discussed the illegal substances.

On Jan. 3, the detective interviewed Hough at the jail. Upon being shown a photograph of the sealed envelope addressed to him, Hough requested a lawyer and the interview was ended. In that interview, the detective did not say what the envelope contained.

Later that day, Hough contacted a relative via a jail phone call and said officers showed him an envelope and told him it contained suboxone.

Riecke and Hough have pretrial conferences on Feb. 13, in Whitley Circuit Court.