By David Hench
Portland Press Herald
PORTLAND, Maine — A Cumberland County Jail guard was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting a female inmate, becoming the second county corrections officer to be charged with felonies in the past week.
Deputies charged Gerald Gilbert Jr., 41, of South Portland with two counts of gross sexual assault, alleging that he had sex with the woman in her cell.
Sheriff Mark Dion would not identify the inmate, but said she is the same person who was to receive prescription opiates from an officer who was charged last week.
On Feb. 3, deputies charged Toby M. Post, 38, of West Gardiner with two counts of trafficking in prison contraband. They said he was seen taking Suboxone and oxycodone from a parked car outside the jail and bringing them onto the jail grounds.
The investigation of Post led to the charges against Gilbert, said Lt. Joel Barnes of internal affairs.
Dion said authorities are not alleging that Gilbert was receiving sex in exchange for the drugs that Post was providing. Instead, they say the two crimes are separate. Both officers were supervising the jail’s housing pod for women, he said.
Dion said the two incidents prompted Chief Deputy Kevin Joyce to review the background checks and hiring assessments for both men to determine whether there should have been any warning signs. He concluded there were none.
Post has been a corrections officer since 2004. Gilbert has worked at the jail since 2007. Neither corrections officer has a criminal record.
Gilbert is free on bail pending his arraignment March 10, the same day Post is scheduled to appear in court. Both men are on leave with pay pending termination hearings, Dion said.
He said the jail does have surveillance, with 80 security cameras, but there are blind spots and the cameras do not show inmates in their cells.
To prevent sex between guards and inmates, the jail does not allow a single officer to go into an inmate’s cell, Dion said. However, during the overnight shift there often is a single corrections officer in a pod.
Gilbert is not accused of physically compelling the inmate to have sex, but he is charged with gross sexual assault because the authority an officer has over an inmate does not give an inmate enough freedom to consent voluntarily, Dion said.
County Manager Peter Crichton appeared Tuesday at a press conference with Dion, saying he and the county commissioners have confidence in Dion’s management of the jail.
Jail officials said they do not expect any other corrections officers to be charged in the investigation.
Copyright 2010 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.