Ex-guard fined $3,500 for sex with inmate

A fired prison guard must register as a sex offender and pay a $3,500 fine for having sex with a female inmate, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled Monday.

James Jennings Sexton Jr. of North Little Rock will also serve five years of probation and must perform 150 hours of community service, Judge Herb Wright ordered at a sentencing hearing Monday. Sexton also must remain employed as a condition of his probation.

Sexton, who turns 35 in about three weeks, pleaded no contest in October to third-degree sexual assault. He had been arrested in October 2013 after being fired when a 23-year-old woman, who was serving a eight-year sentence for first-degree battery from Miller County, told prison authorities that she had been having sex with him.

Personnel records show Sexton had been a guard at the J. Aaron Hawkins Sr. Unit in Wrightsville from August 2011 until May 2013, when he was fired after the relationship came to light.

According to prison personnel records, prison investigators began an internal investigation after the woman said she had “several sexual encounters” with him. Sexton said in a written statement that he tried to have sex with the inmate in the staff dining room in March, but she said no.

According to court files, Sexton and the woman had a sexual relationship in March 2013 and April 2013. It’s against the law for guards to have sex with inmates, even if the inmate consents to the act. The Class C felony charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. Sexton, with no criminal history, qualified for probation.

Sexton did not testify Monday or call any witnesses, but his attorney, Roy Lewellen, told the judge that Sexton’s wife, the mother of the couple’s three children, has stayed with him and that Sexton has continually held a job since his firing. He noted that Sexton is the family’s sole financial support.

Lewellen told the judge that Sexton has accepted responsibility for his wrongdoing, saying Sexton had made a “mistake in judgment” and asking that Wright not impose any jail time on his client.

“I think the human thing is to let him work and raise his family,” Lewellen said.

Lewellen also asked the judge to take into consideration how the sexual relationship was discovered by authorities. He said the woman only came forward after Sexton stopped paying her. Police said he had given the woman $250, putting the money in her commissary account in $50 payments.

Deputy prosecutor Michael Wright told the judge that Sexton had abused his position.

“His job was to protect and keep safe the inmates, and he did not do that,” the prosecutor said.

Court records show Sexton and his wife of six years, Keijuana Conley, 32, filed for bankruptcy in October, just before he entered his no-contest plea, reporting assets of $12,014 with liabilities of $155,756.