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| Corrections officer accused of sexually abusing juvenile inmate |
| By The Arizona Republic |
| Published: 02/26/2004 |
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A 33-year-old female state youth corrections officer was arrested Wednesday and accused of sexually abusing at least one juvenile inmate. Officer Kathleen Liden, a three-year veteran with the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections, was arrested at her Mesa home and jailed on two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, department spokesman Steve Meissner announced late Wednesday. Liden has been on paid administrative leave since Feb. 17. "We have reason to believe that there may be additional victims that have not yet been investigated," Meissner said. Authorities are not releasing the ages of victims or the dates and locations of the incidents, but Meissner said investigators believe the abuse could go back to last year. Liden's arrest comes less than a month after a dismal U.S. Department of Justice report that criticized the state's juvenile corrections system for sexually and physically abusing children and other young inmates with an "incredibly disturbing frequency." The Justice Department found numerous civil rights violations, including lack of suicide prevention, inadequate mental health care and poor investigative and grievance procedures that allow abuse to go unchecked. It is unclear if this is one of the abuse cases chronicled in the federal report. Meissner would not say what prompted the investigation, but he said the arrest came after a "lengthy investigation" performed by Juvenile Corrections investigators, the Mesa Police Department, Maricopa County Attorney's Office and Phoenix Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit. |
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