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June 7, 2005
By Nick Martin, Mike Carter and Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporters
As many as eight corrections officers are under investigation in an expanding probe into what one source called a “culture of harassment” at the King County Jail involving sexual misconduct between male guards and female inmates.
The investigation has widened after two guards, ages 39 and 45, were arrested last month on allegations of sexual misconduct with a 27-year-old inmate.
Publication info
This story originally ran June 7, 2005 in the Seattle Times.
An inmate's letter found in the locker of one of those guards led investigators to arrest and question a third officer two weeks ago. That 34-year-old officer is suspected of sexual contact with a female inmate in the jail's psychiatric unit two years ago.
A source familiar with the investigation says as many as five additional officers at the King County Jail in Seattle have been implicated in conduct ranging from making lewd comments to inmates to bribing them with drugs and candy in exchange for sexually explicit "shows."
"You’ll have these women coming in, some of them strung out on drugs. They're hungry -- starving -- and the diet in the jail just doesn’t provide enough calories for them while they’re coming down,” said the source. "They'll give a show for a candy bar."
Another source familiar with the investigation confirmed details of the investigation.
Under state law, sexual intercourse between a corrections officer and an inmate is a felony. Lesser sexual contact is a misdemeanor.
Consent is not a defense in either case because of a guard's position of power over an inmate.
The three veteran officers have been released from custody and are on paid leave. No criminal charges have been filed.
King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole said yesterday that the investigation "is ongoing and expanding" and that charges may be weeks away.
The Seattle Times generally does not identify suspects who have not been charged.
Reed Holtgeerts, director of the King County Department of Adult & Juvenile Detention, said yesterday, "I don’t believe for one minute that this is widespread."
The investigation began in April when a female inmate came forward to say that she knew of another woman who had been sexually harassed and molested by two guards a month earlier.
When questioned at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Purdy, where she had been transferred, the 27-year-old inmate said one guard touched her and took a photo of one of her breasts with a camera phone. The woman said another officer forced her to perform oral sex in a jail recreation room.
The woman, who is cooperating with investigators, was returned to King County Jail in early May with a microphone sewn into her jail uniform.
She was escorted by each of the officers on separate walks from the jail to the courthouse on the ruse that she was attending a court hearing, according to court documents.
During the walk to court, one officer whispered sexual comments to the woman and "confirmed indirectly" that he had taken a photo of her, the documents say.
On her way back to the jail, the other officer was recorded saying, "Let’s do it right now," and asking her sexual questions, according to court records.
The two officers were arrested the next day.
In searching their jail lockers, investigators found pornographic photographs in one officer's locker, along with a series of pencil-written letters describing various sex acts, according to court documents.
The source close to the investigation said it appears those letters were written by inmates and that some of them were signed.
One of the letters led investigators to arrest the third officer two weeks ago. According to the source, the author of that letter told investigators she had performed oral sex on the officer while she was being housed in the jail's psychiatric unit.
The source said investigators are lifting fingerprints from the unsigned letters in hopes of identifying additional victims.
Detectives have also had to deal with an inmate code of silence, which has further slowed the investigation.
"Some of these women will say, 'I don’t want so-and-so to get in trouble. He was just helping me,'" the source said.
Despite difficulties, investigators believe a "much bigger group" than the initial three corrections officers is involved; the source said the additional officers also are being questioned by detectives.
Holtgeerts said that once it became clear that criminal allegations were involved, the investigation was turned over to the King County Sheriff’s Office. Once the criminal aspects of the case are resolved, he said, an administrative investigation will be conducted.
"We want to get to the bottom of it. We don't want any lingering effects from any of this," he said.
Holtgeerts confirmed that a fourth officer, a 40-year-old man who works at the Regional Justice Center in Kent, was placed on administrative leave last week after allegedly exposing himself to a female inmate.
That investigation has been turned over to Kent police, he said.