Since I started blogging, very few things disturb me dramatically. I have learned about government corrpution, special deals, backroom politics, as well as the overbearing DMV workers who want to be our masters.
All of this seems the news de juer, but maybe to prove to myself that some things still shock me, there is the story of Custer County Oklahoma Sheriff Mike Burgess using inmates as sex slaves. As I reported earlier this practice is NOT uncommon in other insane square states either.
Of course in a county with a relatively high rate of poverty nothing seems surprising anymore. The median income for a household in the county was $28,524, and the median income for a family was $37,247. Males had a median income of $27,066 versus $19,479 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,584. About 12.40% of families and 18.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.00% of those under age 18 and 10.50% of those age 65 or over.
Oklahoma sheriff charged with using inmates as sex slaves
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 18, 2:25 AM ET
ARAPAHO, Okla. - Authorities have charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail.
Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.
Burgess, the top officer in the county of 26,000 since 1994, appeared in court Wednesday was released after posting $50,000 bail.
"We are stunned," Undersheriff Kenneth Tidwell said Thursday.
Attorney Steve Huddleston said that he has not had a chance to review all the allegations against his client, but that "Mr. Burgess is anxious to go to court and clear his name."
Among other things, Burgess is accused of having sex with a female drug court participant who was in his custody. The crimes are to have occurred between October 2005 and April 2007.
A federal lawsuit filed in October claims Burgess told one drug court participant he would have her sent to prison if she didn't comply with his sexual demands.
The lawsuit, filed by 12 former inmates, alleges the sheriff's employees had them engage in wet T-shirt contests and offered cigarettes to those who would flash their breasts.
One prisoner alleged she became a jail trusty with more freedom after agreeing to perform a sex act on Burgess, but lost that status when she later refused.
Burgess also faces two counts each of sexual battery, rape by instrumentation and subornation of perjury, and one count each of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses, indecent exposure and kidnapping.
He could be sentenced to 467 years in prison if convicted on all counts, special prosecutor James
Boring said, though a lesser sentence would be more likely.
No one else from the sheriff's department appears to be implicated, Tidwell said."The circumstances are certainly regretful," he said.
Comments
This just happened in Philly last year where a certain rogue police dept unit was forcing women to engage in sex acts.