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| Former Illinois Prison Officer Acquitted |
| By Bloomington Pantagraph |
| Published: 02/10/2003 |
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A Livingston County jury acquitted a former correctional officer January 29 on charges that he molested two inmates at the Dwight prison. Jabari Landingham, 27, was acquitted on all five counts of custodial sexual misconduct. Both inmates accused Landingham of fondling them in a supply closet sometime in November or December 2000 or February 2001. One inmate also alleged that Landingham forced her to perform oral sex on him after he told her to clean the closet. The jury reached a verdict after an hour and five minutes. Landingham's court-appointed attorney, James Casson, called the victims 'accomplished and admitted liars' during his closing arguments. Casson also pointed out a tape recording of a telephone call between Landingham and one of the inmates. Under an agreement with investigators, one of the inmates called Landingham in an attempt to get an admission from him. During the four minutes of conversation, Landingham repeatedly asked who the caller was. Casson said Landingham had to ask nearly a dozen times who was calling. 'He was not acting that day,' Casson said. 'He didn't know the call was being recorded, but she did, and she was doing the lying.' Casson also pointed to the small inconsistencies in the victims' testimony as proof that their stories were false. Those inconsistencies, Livingston County First Assistant Carey Luckman said, did not detract from the larger picture, which showed Landingham molested the women. In one instance, another correctional officer saw one inmate and Landingham come out of the supply closet, which also is called 'the toxics closet.' 'It would seem a little risky to me for the inmate to pick out a day and bank on the possibility that another correctional officer would remember it,' Luckman said. 'And it wasn't just one inmate dreaming up an incident in toxics closet, it was two.' |
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