Jail employee gets probation for sex
A former civilian employee of the Franklin County Jail was sentenced to two years of community control and must register as a sex offender for having sex with an inmate last year.
The Columbus Dispatch reports Kyle A. Kelley, 23, pleaded guilty July 30 to one count of gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony, for the June 4 incident at the jail.
Kelley’s attorney, Gerald Simmons, argued that Kelley, having no criminal record, didn’t deserve a harsh sentence because he didn’t initiate the sex and simply “gave into the temptation.”
Jennifer Rausch, an assistant Franklin County prosecutor, said that a presentence investigation revealed that Kelley “thinks he’s a scapegoat, should be able to walk and (that the charge is) just stupid.”
Before the sentence, Kelley told Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge William R. Woods, “I would like to apologize to both you and the court ... I should not have let it happen. But it did, and here I am today.”
Kelley, whose job was to check packages and coordinate laundry for inmates, had sexual intercourse with the woman while he was supposed to be monitoring her and another inmate in the jail’s basement.
The punishment, Woods said, is to protect the public from future crimes and deter future conduct by others.
“There appears to be somewhat of a lack of recognition on your part upon the seriousness of the situation due to your position of control over people who are incarcerated,” the judge said.
Woods also ordered Kelley to perform 30 hours of community service, to maintain employment, stay away from the victim, not to leave Ohio without court permission or be near guns. He faces a year in prison for violations. under the influence of alcohol at the time, according to Sylvania Municipal Court records.
Watkins is charged with gross neglect of a patient, a first-degree misdemeanor, online court records show. She was arrested on Wednesday and appeared for arraignment in Sylvania Municipal Court. The incident occurred on Nov. 2, 2017, records show.
She failed to provide the patient with proper care and treatment, prosecutors allege, which led directly to the patient’s injuries.
Watkins is accused of using improper transfer techniques to place the patient into the wheelchair before “abandon[ing] her,” records show. The unlocked wheelchair then rolled down an incline and off a curb, which propelled the patient out of the wheelchair and onto the pavement.
The patient hit her head and body on the concrete, suffering abrasions to her face, knee, and hip along with transverse fractures to her right leg.