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SPRINGFIELD - A Hampden County Sheriff's Department corrections officer has resigned amid allegations of sexual improprieties with a drug defendant in U.S. District Court.

(THE REPUBLICAN FILE)

This is an update to a story filed on Friday at 2:02 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD - A spokesman for the Hampden County Sheriff's Department confirmed that embattled corrections officer Jessica Athas resigned this week amid a controversy in federal court over whether she crossed the line with an alleged drug dealer she was cultivating as a street informant.

Richard McCarthy, spokesman for the jail, said Athas - a onetime sergeant who had been demoted to a corporal over the accusations - resigned this week but could provide no further details.

Her resignation came within days of a federal judge announcing that he intends to bring Athas into court to find out whether she plans to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if she is called as a defense witness in the trial of Sherad Therrien.

Therrien, 24, of Springfield, is charged with multiple counts of selling cocaine and a loaded gun to an undercover FBI informant in 2013 and 2014. Therrien's lawyer, Springfield attorney Jeanne Liddy, has waged an entrapment defense. She argued Athas wooed Therrien into becoming an informant to help her career. Athas was once a member of a Drug Enforcement Administration task force assembled to combat drug and gang activity locally.

In this composite, Sherad Therrien is seen in a Springfield police booking photo from 2010 and Jessica Athas is seen in a screen grab from WGGB-TV video from 2013.

Athas and Therrien met while he was incarcerated at the Ludlow jail and Athas was in charge of identifying inmates with gang affiliations and managing their movements there. Liddy has stated in court records that Athas and Therrien exchanged text messages and gifts, plus met privately after Therrien was released. She said their relationship blossomed into a sexual one.

A U.S. prosecutor wrote in a court filing that he found Athas to be untruthful during two interviews with investigators in January.

Kevin Coyle, a lawyer for Athas, has declined comment and last week refused to say whether Athas plans to plead the fifth if called to the witness stand.

Therrien, whom the government says was caught on videotape selling the drugs and guns, is slated for trial in U.S. District Court starting April 13 before Judge Timothy Hill.