Former officer at Michigan women’s prison arraigned in sex crimes case

LANSING – A former corrections officer on the Girls’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility has been indicted on sexual assault expenses, Legal professional Normal Dana Nessel introduced Nov. 3.

Joshua Lee, 22, of Wyandotte, is charged with 4 counts of second-degree legal sexual conduct, Nessel mentioned in a information launch. Every cost is a 15-year felony.

Lee allegedly “engaged in a number of sexual acts with a number of inmates whereas working on the jail,” the information launch mentioned.

Lee was arraigned Oct. 30 within the 14A District Courtroom in Ypsilanti earlier than Justice of the Peace Odetalla M. Odetalla, the discharge mentioned. Lee is scheduled to look in courtroom on November 6 earlier than Decide J. Cedric Simpson.

The case was investigated by the Michigan State Police. Girls’s Huron Valley close to Ypsilanti is the one state jail for girls in Michigan. Male officers don’t work within the housing models, however nonetheless have contact with prisoners in some elements of the jail.

Nessel mentioned the fees contain sexual penetration and the case highlights the necessity for stricter legal guidelines in Michigan.

She mentioned that whereas Michigan regulation criminalizes any sexual contact involving corrections officers, there isn’t a separate legal offense for corrections officers when the violations contain penetration. Nessel mentioned she hopes the Legislature updates the regulation in order that the legal sexual conduct statutes within the first and third levels explicitly cowl sexual penetration by corrections workers to raised defend inmates and mirror the seriousness of those crimes.

“Our legal guidelines should match the severity of the crime, and one of these alleged sexual misconduct by corrections workers is a critical offense,” Nessel continued. “Updating these statutes will strengthen prisoner protections and be sure that penalties appropriately match the offense.”

An lawyer for Lee couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.