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Guard suspended for arranging tryst
By JAMIE MALERNEE © St. Petersburg Times, published May 15, 2001 BROOKSVILLE -- While two inmates had sex in a shower at the Hernando County Jail, a guard who helped arrange the rendezvous stood watch and told them to hurry up when it looked as if another officer was coming, authorities said. "Wow, that was a close one. Was it good?" the guard later asked the female inmate after everyone was back in their cells, sheriff's reports said. "This can't leave us three." Now, the corrections officer, Nikki Richardson, 23, of Brooksville, has been arrested and suspended from her job. Authorities say Richardson released inmate Demetrius Elliott, 26, from confinement Thursday so he could go into the shower and have sex with the 17-year-old detainee. Elliott, who was being held on drug charges, faces a count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Richardson has been charged with being a principle to the sexual activity. The girl's identity is being withheld because of the nature of the offense. She will not be charged. According to sheriff's officials, the tryst was orchestrated after the two inmates saw each other in the medical ward earlier in the week. The girl was being held there to keep her separate from the adult population while she awaited a court hearing. Information on her charges was not released. Elliott was moved there because he was a discipline problem, a sheriff's report said. Although glass stood between them, the two communicated by reading each other's lips. "Will you have sex with me?" Elliott asked one day, mouthing the words. The 17-year-old agreed by nodding her head, officials say. Authorities would not comment on why Richardson helped arrange the encounter. "I wouldn't want to speculate," Warden Kevin Watson said Monday. Jail officials learned of the incident after Elliott told other inmates about it, sheriff's officials said. Rumors circulated throughout the jail, and on Saturday a jail nurse confronted the girl about the stories. At first, the girl denied the incident, but then broke down crying and admitted it, the report said. Richardson was immediately suspended, and jail officials launched an internal investigation. She was arrested Monday and booked into the jail. Richardson was hired in March on a temporary employment basis by Corrections Corporation of America, the private company that operates the jail, and was not yet licensed as a corrections officer. She was already on administrative leave for previous work-performance problems when jail authorities learned of the criminal allegations, Watson said. The previous problems included coming in late three times in two weeks, calling a jail nurse a derogatory name, failing to fill out proper inmate paperwork, and requesting that certain inmates be put on a sick list so she could visit them in the medical wing, personnel records show. "She'll probably be terminated," Watson said. Richardson has no prior criminal record. She made no statement to authorities at the time of her arrest. Elliott denied the incident took place, the report said, and other inmates in the medical wing that day said they saw nothing. After searching the teen's cell, officers found two unsigned letters they believe were written by Elliott to her. In the first, the letter-writer tells her that he is going to miss her when he goes to prison, "but at least your (sic) my wife now. ... Me and you together forever." In the second, the writer is angry and says the teen "tried me like a sucker" and that he isn't going to talk about her to anyone anymore. In the aftermath of the incident, the warden said he would review jail policies to see if the situation could have been avoided. The glass window where the two inmates glimpsed each other has already been covered, he said. He added that it is standard procedure at the jail for female juveniles to be held in the medical wing, where the girl remained Monday. "That's the best area to keep them out of the sight of the adult population," he said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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