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Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

Ex-officer seeks lesser sentence in Fayette jail abuses

A former lieutenant at the Fayette County Detention Center is trying to avoid prison time for helping cover up inmate beatings by arguing that, as a female, she had little real authority in the jail's "male dominated culture."

Kristine Lafoe could be sentenced to up to five years in federal prison on Wednesday, but Lafoe is asking for 12 to 18 months of home detention and community service.

In a court document filed in October, she said her actions were in part motivated by a "desire to be a part of the male dominated culture" at the jail and "to compensate for her lack of any real supervisory authority over the males under her command."

"In reality, Kris did not have the actual authority that her title would indicate," her attorney Patrick Nash said in an Oct. 14 motion asking for no prison time.

Lafoe's contention comes amid recent allegations in lawsuits and jail documents that men working at the jail have behaved inappropriately toward female inmates and one female officer.

In August, a male officer resigned after an internal jail investigation found that he had shown a picture of his penis to a female inmate. On Thursday, officer Charlotte Trotter filed a lawsuit alleging that a supervisor sexually harassed her and that jail officials retaliated against her for reporting it.

In a statement, Mayor Jim Newberry said Friday that he is "concerned" by the allegations of misconduct, but said "we have seen no evidence of a systemic set of problems involving jail administration."

"Since my administration took office in January 2007, a number of personnel and operating changes have been made at the jail, and many of the current claims arose prior to those changes having been made," he said. "We have worked to make significant improvements over the last two and a half years. To the extent other changes are necessary to improve jail operations, we will make them."

Newberry said he continues to have confidence in jail director Ron Bishop's "ability to manage our correctional facility."

Lafoe was one of five former jail workers indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2008 for allegedly abusing or covering up the abuse of six pre-trial detainees between January and October 2006. Lafoe was not accused of beating inmates.

Four of the defendants were fired by the Urban County Government last year and none of them still work at the jail.

The indicted officers worked in the intake area of the jail that holds pre-trial detainees — people who have been arrested but not convicted.

Lafoe pleaded guilty in May to a charge of conspiring to obstruct justice by allowing others to write false and misleading incident reports to justify unnecessary and excessive uses of force. She also faces a fine of up to $250,000.

"Kris' role in the conspiracy was to look the other way, and to fail to accurately report some occasions of excessive use of force," says the Oct. 14 motion by Lafoe's attorney.

Nash declined to comment about the motion on Friday.

Two of Lafoe's codefendants also pleaded guilty in May. Scott Tyree, a former corporal at the jail, faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000. Anthony Estep, a former sergeant, faces a maximum prison sentence of two years and a fine of up to $200,000.

Estep and Tyree have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against John McQueen, who was a sergeant, and Clarence McCoy, who was a corporal, according to court documents. McQueen and McCoy are also scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday in a separate hearing.

At an August hearing, a federal prosecutor told U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell that a videotape shows McQueen "holding a limp detainee and slamming him atop the counter multiple times without provocation or resistance."

Prosecutors told the judge at the August hearing that McCoy had been offered a plea deal if he would testify against McQueen, according to court documents. Both McCoy and McQueen have turned down a previous offer to plead guilty, the documents say.