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| Female Prison Officer Faces Sex Abuse Trial |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/29/2003 |
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reinstated a sexual assault case against a former officer accused of providing inmates with candy and cigarettes from the prison commissary in exchange for sexual favors. A lower-court judge had dismissed charges against Eileen Mayfield, finding that the state's institutional sexual-assault law was unconstitutionally vague and that the men had consented to the sexual contact. The high court disagreed in an opinion issued Wednesday. The law is clearly intended to prohibit sexual contact between corrections staff and inmates, Justice J. Michael Eakin wrote, adding that whether any sex was consensual is irrelevant. 'Sexual contact between correctional staff and inmates is obviously rife with the possibility of coercion, both subtle and overt, given the extensive power guards exercise over inmates,' Eakin wrote. A guard at the Eagleville facility for about 18 years, Mayfield, of Norristown, was assigned to the prison commissary between 1998 and 2000, when she allegedly gave inmates thousands of dollars worth of stolen items. Mayfield, who says she is innocent, was fired. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said his office will schedule the case for trial. Mayfield is charged with three counts of violating the institutional sexual-assault law. Each carries a maximum seven years in prison. Her lawyer, Jeffrey Allen Sigman, said he will concentrate on winning an acquittal rather than appealing to the federal courts. |
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