A 37-year-old detention deputy named Kevin Lacy has been fired and arrested following an investigation into alleged misconduct involving a female inmate at a Colorado county detention facility. The case, which stems from an incident in August, has moved quickly from internal review to termination to criminal referral in the span of about six weeks.
According to The Denver Post, the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office reported in a news release that Lacy was arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct involving a female inmate at the county detention facility, and that he faces charges of sexual conduct in a correctional institution and official misconduct.
Termination Followed Internal Review
Per the Post's reporting, Lacy worked as a detention deputy and was placed on paid administrative leave in September after the sheriff's office learned of the reported misconduct. He was later fired. The same account quotes Sheriff Tyler Brown saying Lacy's conduct does not reflect the character, integrity or professional standards of the agency, and that the agency takes the safety and well-being of individuals in its custody seriously. Brown also said holding employees accountable is essential to maintaining the public's trust.
The other version of events, reported by KDVR, describes a parallel process: the sheriff's office investigated allegations of inappropriate conduct involving an inmate and submitted the case to the district attorney's office for review, and a review of the findings led the sheriff to fire Lacy. Court records show Lacy is already facing charges of sexual conduct in a correctional institution and official misconduct.
Inmate Moved, Hearing Set
The Post reports that the female inmate at the center of the case was transferred to another jail. The Post also reported that the alleged misconduct had not been specified.
The Post reports that Lacy was scheduled to appear for a hearing on advisement Wednesday in Adams County. Colorado law, as cited by law.justia.com, classifies sexual conduct in a correctional institution as a class 5 felony when it includes sexual intrusion or sexual penetration and is committed by an employee or contract employee of a correctional institution.
A Broader Pattern in Correctional Settings
Cases like this one are not isolated nationally. A Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that in 2020, correctional authorities recorded 8,628 allegations of staff sexual misconduct nationwide, alongside 9,321 allegations of inmate-on-inmate sexual harassment, 7,449 of staff sexual harassment, 6,370 of nonconsensual sexual acts and 4,496 of abusive sexual contact, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The figures underscore how allegations of staff misconduct toward people in custody remain a persistent issue for correctional agencies, even as individual cases like Lacy's play out under differing public accounts of jurisdiction and charging status.
