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| Story County jailer found not guilty |
| By Luke Jennett , Staff Writer, amestrib.com |
| Published: 11/17/2011 |
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NEVADA — A Story County Jury returned a not-guilty verdict Wednesday in the case of a former Story County jail officer accused of committing a sex act with a female inmate in February. Michael Warnick, 33, of Hubbard, was found not guilty by an all-male jury after only a few hours of deliberation. He had been charged with sexual misconduct with an offender, an aggravated misdemeanor. The trial began Tuesday and included testimony from the woman who said she and Warnick had begun a relationship after the jailer had complimented her on losing weight. At the time, the woman said, she was working as a trustee at the jail, a position that would have earned her an earlier release, and worked nights doing cleaning jobs. Warnick supervised her at times while she worked. The woman claimed the relationship blossomed and the two began exchanging letters, which over a few months became sexually explicit. She said she started saving the letters with her legal mail to avoid detection by staff. Eventually, she said, the relationship culminated with a sex act in the bathroom of the officer’s station in the center of the jail. On Wednesday, defense attorney Matthew Sease declined to call any witnesses on Warnick’s behalf, and both sides delivered their closing arguments. Story County Attorney Stephen Holmes attempted in his closing to address a hole in the prosecution’s case; the nonexistence of any surveillance tape showing the two acting inappropriately with each other. “There could have been 640 cameras instead of 64, and you could still remain undetected,” he said. “Especially if you knew what you were doing, as Mr. Warnick did. The system was not designed, and could never be designed, to address the situation we have here, where an employee of the county wanted to avoid detection.” Sease’s closing attacked both the state’s case and the woman, who admitted on the stand to a criminal history including an assault on an elderly man with a mallet and a stint as a getaway driver in a robbery. Sease said the woman’s motive for reporting the alleged sexual conduct and for saving the letters from Warnick was that she was planning on bringing a lawsuit against Story County and the jail. The woman admitted on the stand that she’d retained a lawyer but wouldn’t confirm that she planned to sue the county. Luke Jennett can be reached at (515) 663-6919 or ljennett@amestrib.com. click here for more of the story. |
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