Ex-Deputy Cleared of Sex Charge

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By Akron Beacon Journal

Published: 11/25/2002

It took less than 20 minutes for a Medina County, Ohio, jury to clear a former sheriff's deputy of being a lookout for a fellow officer who had sex with an inmate.
The jury believed Joseph Bradley's contention that he was just doing his job sitting at the Ohio jail's security desk when Deputy Lester McNary slipped out of the office and escorted a female inmate to the kitchen to have sex. If convicted of the felony charge of complicity to commit sexual battery, Bradley would have faced up to three years in prison.
Bradley mouthed "thank you'' to the mostly female jury as they walked out of Judge James Kimbler's courtroom.
Since the charge was levied this summer, Bradley said his life has not been the same.
He lost his job of three years. Moved from Medina to Massillon to get away from the case. And he's had to take a number of odd jobs to "scrape together'' enough money to get by.
Former inmate Jamie Weigel, 26, of Creston, testified that she was in jail for theft, forgery and receiving stolen property when McNary, who has been fired, began flirting with her.
As the weeks ensued, Weigel said she and McNary would talk about having sex over the jail's two-way intercom system while she worked in the laundry area and he manned the security desk across the hall.
Sometimes, she said, she would lift her shirt and flash her breasts to McNary and other deputies who were working at the security desk.
On the day of the sexual encounter in the kitchen, Weigel testified that McNary was working at the security desk with Bradley.
McNary, she said, called her over the intercom and told her to meet him at the kitchen door, which is situated down a secure hallway.
Assistant Prosecutor Anne Eisenhower contended there was no way Bradley couldn't have known what was going on between McNary and Weigel, given the amount of sexual banter over the intercom, the flashings and McNary abandoning his post to lead the inmate into a locked kitchen.
McNary, of Cuyahoga Falls, who could face additional charges for failing to answer a subpoena to testify at Bradley's trial, is scheduled to appear in court in December to face two counts of sexual battery for having sex with Weigel and for a separate incident with another inmate in the jail's laundry room.

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