An Army veteran convicted of sexually assaulting a female inmate at the Franklin County Regional Jail while working as a prison guard was ordered to rejoin the military or face jail time by a Kentucky judge.
According to Insider, a woman incarcerated at the jail filed a lawsuit in 2019 against the county and several former jail officials, including former guard Brandon Scott Price, 28, alleging that she was sexually assaulted.
The lawsuit said the inmate experienced a medical emergency and had to be taken to the hospital in January 2019. Price, whose shift was over at the time, volunteered to transport the inmate alone which violates jail policy and industry standards and practices.
Price stayed with the inmate for five hours while making “sexually charge comments” towards her and referenced his connections to someone responsible for parole decisions at the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
When Price was driving the inmate back to jail, he pulled off onto a side road and asked her to perform oral sex on him in exchange for an earlier release, the lawsuit said.
“He turned around and told (the inmate) if she performed oral sex on him, he would talk to the KDOC employee he knew about getting her released from jail earlier,” the lawsuit says. Price then assaulted the woman while she was shackled in the rear of the vehicle.
Price was later arrested after an investigation by jail officials. He told investigators that he “made a stupid mistake” and “let a female inmate touch me inappropriately.”
He was originally charged with third-degree sodomy, a Class D felony, but the charge was reduced to second-degree sexual assault, a Class A misdemeanor, according to the State Journal.
Last Friday, Judge Thomas Wingate gave Price a 12-month sentence that is probated for two years but said he could avoid jail time if he re-enlist in the US military within 30 days.
“If you don’t enroll in 30 days, you can report to the Franklin County Regional Jail,” Wingate said. “You are under the gun, young man. You gotta do it.”
“You’re getting a huge break,” Wingate added. “You made a terrible mistake, which I know personally cost the county money.”
But, a judge’s ruling does not apply beyond the doors of a recruiting office, according to Task & Purpose.
Without a waiver, Army Regulation 610-210 — which covers Army recruiting guidelines — states that an applicant is not eligible for enlistment if, “as a condition for any civil conviction or adverse disposition or any other reason through a civil or criminal court, [they are] ordered or subjected to a sentence that implies or imposes enlistment into the Armed Forces of the United States.”
Applicants can apply for a waiver but must demonstrate “sufficient mitigating circumstances that clearly justify approving the waiver.”
