A paralegal in the New Jersey US Attorney’s Office has been arrested for allegedly using her work equipment and access to help her gang member son and his Bronx, NY, crew find members who were “snitching” to the police, charge the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Brooklyn, NY, resident Tawanna Hilliard worked in the federal office in Newark and in 2016 “used her DOJ-issued equipment to conduct computer searches to determine whether certain individuals were cooperating with law enforcement,”  according to court papers.

Hilliard’s son Tyquan is a member of the 5-9 Brims set of the Bloods street gang.

Protesters alleged that Hilliard as trying to aid a top-ranking 5-9 Brims member, identified in court documents as Brim-1, find out if two other gang members had given information to law enforcement.

It seems Brim-1 thought the two other gang members were federal defendants and had snitched. Tawanna found neither of them had active federal cases. 

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“Tyquan Hilliard, who at the time was serving six years for possession of a loaded firearm, was in a dispute with Brim-1 and ‘expressed irritation’ that his mother had tried to help Brim-1 out, the documents said,” NBC News reported.

Tawanna later used her government access to her go onto the “DOJ search engine from work to find information about Brim-1, including his address, and shared it with her son. Tawanna and Tyquan discussed ways to harm Brim-1, but no evidence shows they ever did, according to prosecutors,” NBC News reported. Tawanna did find police interviews with two gang members who had been arrested.

Tawanna posted interviews on YouTube, titling then “NYC Brim Gang Member Snitching Pt. 1” and “NYC Brim Gang Member Snitching.”

Both gang members began getting threats after the videos were posted, prosecutors said.

“When investigators searched Hilliard’s Flatbush home in September 2018, they found the video interviews with him and another accomplice on her computer. Her son was behind bars when the videos were posted, but he allegedly sent letters to various people — including the FBI and a senior Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York — threatening to upload more clips…,” The New York Post reported.

Mother and son were indicted on charges of tampering with witnesses, obstruction of justice, harassment of witnesses, and other charges.

Hilliard pleaded not guilty and was released on $75,000 bond. Tyquan is currently serving a 10-year sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility on assault and robbery convictions and will be arraigned on the new charges.

Tawanna Hilliard faces up to 20 years in prison on the obstruction charge alone.