Law student Dana Tapper seen [left], on the Ellen DeGeneres show five years ago,  where she was gifted $20,000 for her volunteer work with the under-privileged. Now a full fledged attorney with a practice in Virginia, Tapper has been accused of providing drugs and having sex with an inmate

A Virginia lawyer who was once gifted $20,000 by Ellen DeGeneres when she was a law student has been accused of proving drugs and having sex with an inmate.
Dana Lauren Tapper, 30, was arrested on Wednesday, charged with providing improper conduct with an inmate.
A central Virginia multi-jurisdictional grand jury on April 20 indicted Tapper, 30, of Richmond on one count each of providing a prisoner with a cellphone, providing a prisoner with drugs, and distribution of a controlled substance, barcomplaint reports.
One source claims Tapper visited the inmate hundreds of times at the Riverside Regional Jail to smuggle drugs and have sex with him in prison.
It has been a drastic fall for Tapper, who was celebrated on 2013 episode of DeGeneres’ talk show when she was a University of Virginia law student.

‘Most law students are lured in by promises of large corporate salaries to help pay off their debt,’ the letter, obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, read.
‘But Dana has been steadfast in her commitment to helping those less fortunate.’
During her appearance on the show, Tapper told DeGeneres that she was the first person in her family to go to college.
She also talked of her dreams to help those in the juvenile justice system.
‘The only reason I went to law school was to work with kids,’ she told the host.
DeGeneres then surprised Tapper with a $20,000 gift donated from online photo service Shutterfly.

Now Tapper is facing serious charges and a further investigation as it was uncovered she has a history of visiting inmates, even when she isn’t representing them in court.
Tapper has been charged for two incidents in which she allegedly gave an inmate a cell phone on December 7, 2017 and then gave him drugs five days later.
The inmate’s name has not been released and it has not been revealed what drugs she allegedly brought into the prison or how they were smuggled.
Tapper was not an ‘attorney of record’ for the inmate but ‘went to visit him’, according to Prince George Commonwealth’s Attorney Susan Fierro.
‘She made an appearance in Chesterfield Circuit Court [for him], and the court asked her if she was the attorney of record,’ Fierro said.
‘She apparently conceded that she was not.’
And records show that Tapper has a history of doing this.  Tapper who is is married, is on record as having visited one inmate, Karon Porter, 38 times at Riverside Regional Jail over a period of year-and-a-half, according to WTVR.

She also asked to address the court during Porter’s hearing, despite the fact that she was not his attorney, and said she had spent ‘several hundred hours’ on his case.
Porter was later found guilty of leading state police on a 2013 high-speed chase. He had crashed into a car and killed a 73-year-old Marine veteran.
Tapper also spoke as a witness on behalf of convicted felon and gang member Damian King, who she also was not representing, during a bond hearing.
King was charged with breaking into a man’s home and shooting him.
Tapper claimed King worked for her at her Richmond law practice and said he was essential into giving her access to clients in the juvenile network.
She told King’s attorney in court that she had no concerns working with King despite the current charges.King was denied bond and pled guilty.
Tapper, who will go on trial in August, also faces a bar hearing for ‘misconduct’ in June. She remains an attorney in good standing with an active law license.
She has been released on a $2,000 unsecured bond,. her next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday in Prince George Circuit Court for appointment of counsel.