MEDFORD -- William "Bill" Emerson, a popular Tewksbury church deacon, allegedly admitted to investigators he smuggled drugs into the Cambridge and Billerica jails because he was being blackmailed by an inmate who threatened to expose the church leader's secret.
When investigators began probing inmates testing positive for Suboxone, an opioid similar to morphine, codeine and heroin, the investigation led back to Emerson, a jail chaplain from St. William Church in Tewksbury, according to court documents.