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| Jail officers suspended in sex probe |
| By The Kingston Daily Freeman |
| Published: 01/12/2004 |
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The Columbia County (N.Y.) Sheriff's Office has confirmed that two corrections officers have been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation into whether they had sexual relations with inmates. Juanita "China" Diaz last month sent her mother, Shirley Dunn, a letter from the Columbia County Jail in which she claims to have had sexual relations with an officer at the jail and that the relations had been going on "for a while." Diaz wrote that during a previous incarceration she and another female inmate were "messing with" two officers and that during that stay she had become "friendly friends" with one of them. She then went on to detail sexual relations between the two of them. Dunn said her daughter is a crack addict and that her arrests stem from the sale of crack cocaine to finance her addiction and engaging in prostitution for the same reason. According to her mother, Diaz alleged the officers encouraged her to have sex with them, saying it was no different from her activities on the street as a prostitute. Diaz is currently in the Greene County Jail, charged with third-degree sale of a controlled substance, a felony, and seventh-degree possession of drugs, a misdemeanor. Her mother says she has two previous felony convictions. In a press release, Columbia County Sheriff Walter K. Shook said "allegations of consensual sexual contact occurred with these two officers" and that a meeting with the district attorney will take place at the conclusion of the department's investigation. The Sheriff's Office operates the county jail in Greenport. In 1996, the state enacted Sexual Offense Statute 130, governing the prosecution of sexual offenses. It gives clear definitions of both sexual offenses and the nature of consent. In the legislation, "lack of consent" includes the definition "the victim is an inmate in either a state or city correctional facility (i.e. jail or prison)." |
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