A manager sexually harassed women at KY juvenile jail for years while reports were ignored
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Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice
The Herald-Leader has reported on serious problems inside the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice for more than four years.
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Women who worked at the state-run Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Lexington say the facility’s deputy manager sexually harassed employees for years without consequence, according to state records obtained by the Herald-Leader under the Kentucky Open Records Act.
The deputy manager, Charles Scott Harris, invaded employees’ personal space to hug them, touch their backs and shoulders, wrap himself around them and rub his clothed penis against their bodies, the women told a state investigator last year. He had a reputation for being a “creepy uncle,” they said.
Harris also referred to female staff as a derogatory term for a women and spoke about his sexual prowess in front of them, they said.
In separate incidents, women told the investigator, Harris mimicked masturbating on one of his female colleagues. He licked a different colleague on her ear after surprising her from behind, laughing when she cried out, “What the (expletive)?! That’s weird!” they said.
However, complaints about Harris’ behavior that started in October 2022 did not get much response inside the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, which is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for possible civil rights violations of youths held in state custody.
The Lexington facility’s manager, Jesse Joe Caskey Jr., said he believed he did enough by verbally coaching Harris to act better, according to state records. At least two other male employees — a division director and a staff assistant — failed to act on or pass along the complaints they heard about Harris.
“When the chain of command is used to make reports, nothing gets done and information gets distorted,” one woman told the investigator last year.
Only when Lt. LaQuetta Black pushed her concerns directly to high-ranking state officials in Frankfort last July — nearly two years after she first made verbal and written complaints — did an investigation begin in the Office of Human Resource Management at the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the Department of Juvenile Justice.
That investigation concluded last Nov. 6 with the firings of Harris and Caskey.
Harris was cited for misconduct and lack of good behavior.
So was Caskey. He was faulted for failing to report allegations of Harris’ harassment to human resources or the department’s central office in Frankfort and for his own behavior toward Black, such as texting her to ask for a kiss and a photograph of herself.
Harris died, age 45, a month after he was fired from his $90,315-a-year job.
Caskey, 47, did not respond to requests for comment for this story. His salary was $98,110.
Juvenile Justice Commissioner Randy White told the Herald-Leader he acted decisively once the harassment complaints reached his desk last summer.
“All allegations of sexual harassment are taken seriously and investigated,” White said in a prepared statement
“As soon as I was made aware of the allegations, I launched a full investigation, which resulted in the dismissal of two employees, including the supervisor who failed to raise the initial allegation to human resources,” he said. “We have assigned Donty Lear to Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center as interim superintendent.”
Lear joined the Juvenile Justice Department in 2021 as a counselor at its Jefferson County juvenile detention center following an earlier career in the mental health field with the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, according to his state biography.
The troubled state agency recently lost another manager following allegations of wrongdoing.
The Herald-Leader disclosed in January that Tonya Burton, the longtime head of the state’s juvenile detention center in Adair County, resigned just ahead of getting fired. State officials said Burton failed to conduct important mental health assessments of youths in her custody and wrongly accused a teen boy of getting a handcuff key from one of her guards.
Harassment not addressed
Last July 25, Black, the lieutenant at the Lexington juvenile detention center, emailed Rodney Moore, the human resources director for the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet in Frankfort, according to state records.
Black wanted Moore to know about the sexual harassment of women at the 56-bed facility. She sent Moore a copy of the complaint she filed against Harris, her deputy manager, with Caskey, her manager, on Oct. 6, 2022.
Not only was that harassment never addressed, Black said, but she was unfairly denied overtime opportunities, disciplined and bad-mouthed by Caskey because she had filed a complaint.
The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet assigned investigator Kathryn Reed to look into the allegations.
Reed spent weeks interviewing 16 people around the detention center and reviewing documents and tapes while Harris and Caskey were put on paid leave.
In the end, Reed concluded that a serious problem existed in Lexington.
At least five lower-level employees said they experienced or saw Harris sexually harassing women or demeaning them with foul or sexual language, and this information was shared with several higher-level male employees, including Caskey, she wrote in her report.
But the men didn’t forward the information to their bosses in Frankfort or discipline Harris.
Caskey told Reed he believed he had the authority to “counsel” Harris to stop his misbehavior, rather than report him or take firmer action, Reed wrote. As recently as last June, Caskey was “verbally correcting Harris’ behavior of touching staff,” according to Caskey’s Nov. 6 termination letter.
Additionally, Reed said, Caskey had his own issues.
Text exchanges showed that in early 2023, Caskey wrote to Black: “Maybe you’ll kiss me when I get that Bugatti grill,” Reed wrote in her report.
When Black sent Caskey an inmate photograph 12 days later, the manager replied: “Unless they’re pics of you, I don’t need any more,” with a laughing emoji.
During his interview, Caskey confirmed that he sent Black the texts, but he said they were not part of an inappropriate attempt to pressure her into a personal relationship, Reed wrote.
Unwelcome behavior
In his interview with the investigator, Harris described himself as a “huggy guy” but denied harassing women.
He had a different take on some of the events women described.
For example, Black alleged that on Oct. 3, 2022, Harris entered the office where she worked and pretended to unzip his pants and masturbate on her. This led to her first verbal and written complaints to Caskey days later.
Harris disputed Black’s account but acknowledged speaking in the office about “youth engaging in masturbation techniques with detail,” Reed wrote in her report. Harris did not deny that he engaged in “sexual talk” around Black, but he thought she was participating, Reed wrote.
Another employee, Lt. Amanda Smith, told the investigator that Harris came up behind her about two years earlier and surprised her by licking her right ear. When she cursed at him, he laughed, Smith said.
Harris denied licking Smith’s ear, but he said he might have come up behind her and spoken into her ear, and he agreed he had hugged Smith and “probably did kiss her cheek,” Reed wrote in her report. He “hugs everyone,” he added.
A third woman, Officer Melissa Williams, said Harris would come up behind her while she worked and push his clothed penis into her back so that she could feel it, making her uncomfortable. Black made the same complaint, saying that she tried to get away when Harris rubbed his penis against her, but he “moved back close to me.”
Harris told the investigator he didn’t intend to push his genitals against women, but he said he often came up behind Williams and other colleagues working at their computers and leaned his body over theirs in order to help them with their tasks.
“He advised this was only to assist staff, not to touch them with his clothed body/genitals,” Reed wrote in her report. “He understood now ... why this behavior would be unwelcome and will implement different strategy to assist staff with computer issues in the future.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
