Volusia County corrections lieutenant arrested for having sex with inmate
A Volusia County Branch Jail nighttime supervisor was arrested and accused of having sexual relations with an inmate and bringing the woman restricted items like cough medicine and giving her his cellphone, a sheriff's office charging document shows.
Volusia County spokesman, Michael Ryan, said Wednesday that Lt. Jonathan Harding, 43, of Daytona Beach, was arrested at 1 p.m. and charged with sexual misconduct by an employee with an inmate, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, two counts of smuggling contraband into a county detention facility, all felonies; and a misdemeanor, introduction of contraband into a county detention facility.
Harding was booked into the administrative segregation unit of the Volusia County Jail and is scheduled to go before a judge Thursday morning, Ryan said.
He is now on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of his case, Ryan said.
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Cough medicine and a burrito from Chipotle
Sheriff's investigators said they started looking into allegations of sexual activity between Harding and a woman jailed at the women's facility on May 2.
At the jail, sheriff's detectives got a jail report prepared by a corrections lieutenant stating that Harding brought the jailed woman cough drops and other medications and allowed her to use his personal cellphone, the charging affidavit shows.
In reviewing surveillance video and 1,159 text messages, investigators learned that Harding consistently texted the inmate, with many of the text messages being of a romantic nature, investigators said.
The restricted items Harding brought the woman included cold and flu medications and a burrito from a Chipotle restaurant, the report detailed.
The text messages also showed that Harding and the woman planned when to have sexual intercourse throughout the lieutenant's shift, investigators said.
Work order to cover sexual encounter
On April 18, Harding went to the woman's cell and had sex. In text messages, he and the woman discussed their concerns of having been heard by a neighboring inmate and made up a reason to cover the encounter in case the other inmate asked, the report states.
The pair agreed that they would say that the sink in the woman's jail cell was clogged and that he was there to fix it.
Harding put in a work order to cover his tracks, investigators wrote in the report.
Harding also gave the inmate a glass with bleach to eliminate any DNA or other evidence that was left in the cell, detectives said.
Troubles with home life
Harding, who has been working at the jail since February 2011, admitted to bringing restricted items to the woman, giving her his cellphone with which she sent him nude and sexually explicit photos, and having sex with her.
Harding told investigators he knew what he did was against policy, the report said.
The woman declined to be interviewed by detectives, the report indicated.
Harding then told detectives that he was having troubles with his home life and as a result started flirting with the inmate.
Harding was a nighttime supervisor at the jail and his responsibilities were to pass on information from the dayshift, adjust shift rosters, brief his oncoming shift sergeants, and review facility reports and time cards, officials said.
"The nightshift lieutenant's position is essentially a desk job," investigators wrote in the report. "There would be no work-related reason to spend an abundance of time in the pods where the inmates are housed, or to have one-on-one interactions with the inmates alone in their cell."
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida corrections officer arrested for sexual relations with inmate
