An Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputy arrested this week showed an inmate a naked picture of himself and later touched her bottom while he was working at the county’s jail, a sheriff’s sergeant wrote in an arrest affidavit.
The sheriff’s office fired 37-year-old Kevin Lacy on Tuesday, and he was arrested on charges of sexual conduct in a correctional institution, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor, the same day. He had been on paid administrative leave since late September, when the sheriff’s office learned of the alleged misconduct.
A jail employee going through the inmate’s mail on Sept. 25 flagged notes describing sexual acts and encounters with the woman that appeared to be written by a sheriff’s deputy, the sheriff’s office wrote in the affidavit.
The woman later told deputies Lacy had written the notes, and she had been trying to send them home so she could have them after she got out of jail. The two began passing notes in August after she told him she was attracted to him, the woman told deputies.
In one note, Lacy wrote “I don’t want to stop, but I need to be more careful,” according to the affidavit. In another, he described touching the woman in a part of the jail where he believed they wouldn’t be seen on cameras, then told her to throw the notes away.
Lacy’s body camera footage appears to show him calling the woman over while he was working in the jail and showing her a naked picture of himself, sheriff’s office officials wrote in the affidavit. Later that morning, his body camera footage appears to show him touching the woman’s bottom.
“Deputy Lacy’s conduct does not reflect the character, integrity or professional standards of this agency,” Sheriff Tyler Brown said in a statement Tuesday. “Maintaining the safety and well-being of individuals in our custody is a responsibility we take seriously. Holding our employees accountable when they fail to uphold the standards expected of them is essential to maintaining the public’s trust.”
The woman was transferred to another jail, Arapahoe County officials said in a news release.
