SICK

Prison Guard Allegedly Sodomized Inmate Quarantining With COVID

Former federal correctional officer Jose Viera “knew his conduct was against the law but engaged in such conduct anyway,” a newly unsealed plea agreement states.

A federal correctional officer working in a Los Angeles lockup admitted to sodomizing an inmate while she was quarantining in her cell after a positive COVID test, according to a newly unsealed plea agreement first obtained by The Daily Beast. The filing, which was unsealed Tuesday alongside an information charging former U.S. Bureau of Prisons CO Jose Viera, 48, with deprivation of civil rights under color of law, says the assault occurred five days before Christmas 2020. That morning, Viera, who was assigned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in L.A., entered the cell of an inmate isolating with COVID, identified in the plea filing as “J.P.” Viera laid down next to her, “sandwiching her between his body and the wall,” the filing states, adding that Viera then groped J.P. and subsequently forced himself on her. “Victim J.P. feared physical harm from defendant as it was happening, and in fact, defendant’s conduct resulted in bodily injury to victim J.P.,” it continues. “... [T]he defendant knew his conduct was against the law but engaged in such conduct anyway.” Viera’s DNA was found on J.P.’s bedsheets, according to the plea. He faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing. He does not have a lawyer listed in court records, and was unable to be reached for comment on Tuesday.

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