News Summary

LEBANON — Former Warren and Montgomery county deputies were sent to jail in March for engaging in sexual conduct with prisoners at the Warren County Jail.

Last month in Greene County, a former deputy was sentenced last month to 1,000 hours of community service and fined $500 for kissing a female inmate's breasts in the county jail.

In Clark County, authorities terminated a deputy after discovering several female inmates had shown him their breasts while in the county jail.

No charges were brought against David W. Chapman, although investigators determined he and one of the inmates also engaged in sexual conduct off jail grounds, authorities said last month.

Chapman, a probationary employee, was terminated on Dec. 21, 2005, records show.

"It was getting close to (criminal charges). That's why we got rid of him," Major Russell Garman said.

While critical of Clark County, members of a national commission formed to study the problem of sex crimes, ranging from rape to harassment, in America's jails and prisons, applauded the prosecutions.

"You actually had a D.A. take the case. These cases are serious and they are winnable," said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. program for Human Rights Watch and part of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission.

The commission was formed after Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 to study and bring attention to the problem in American prisons and jails.

Local jails reported 22 percent of the 6,241 allegations — 2.8 allegations per 1,000 inmates in a 2005 sampling of U.S. prisons, jails and other adult correctional facilities — the latest data collected in conjunction with the federal initiative.

According to the report, two-thirds of the incidents of staff sexual misconduct with inmates were romantic, fewer than 15 percent involved physical force, abuse of power or pressure by staff.

On March 13 in Warren County, Judge Neal Bronson sentenced Lori Riley, a Warren County deputy, to 15 days in the county jail, where in 2006 she had sex with a male inmate about to be shipped off to prison.

Eight days later, the judge sentenced Daniel Johnson, a Montgomery County deputy, to 60 days in the Warren County Jail for engaging in sexual conduct with a woman he was transporting up to Dayton for a court hearing.

In May in Greene County, appointed Judge David A. Gowdown sentenced Francis "Tip" Link, a veteran lieutenant in the Greene County Sheriff's Office, to 100 hours of community service and a $500 fine for kissing and touching a female inmate's breast in the county jail.

All three were charged with sexual battery, a felony alleging the deputy used his or her authority to convince the inmate. Link's charges were reduced after investigation found sexual contact, not conduct.

In Clark County, Chapman was fired after investigators presented their case to prosecutors who declined to seek charges, Garman said.