By C1 Staff
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Wash. — The Franklin County sheriff took money out of his own pocket to pay a fine for not allowing a sex offender to continue his job as a mall security officer.
The News Tribune reports that Jeffrey C. Sivonen was taken into custody after he pleaded guilty to felony sex crimes.
A judge later ordered Sheriff Jim Raymond to allow Sivonen to continue working his mall security job while wearing a GPS monitoring device, since he had not met his victim at work.
The Franklin County Jail’s rules for work release do not allow sex offenders to take part in the program, which allows inmates to leave the jail to perform a job.
Raymond, along with Jail Commander Stephen Sultemeier, decided to not honor the order. He did not notify prosecutors, the judge or Sivonen’s defense attorney that he was going to ignore the order.
The judge was finally made aware that the sheriff was ignoring his order on April 14. He fined Raymond $100 for ignoring the order.
Raymond said that he personally paid the fine because it would be an improper use of taxpayer money.
He is now reconsidering having a work release program.
“Work release is a privilege, it is not court mandated,” he said. “Before I allow them to pull high-risk offenders out of my jail, I’ll shut it down.”