GLASGOW — A former inmate at the Barren County Correction Center has settled her lawsuit against former deputy jailer Ricardo Huffman, former jailer Leland Cox and Barren County.

Aurie Jones’ case, set to have been tried by a jury in February, was dismissed by order of Special Judge Thomas Castlen on Feb. 12 in Barren Circuit Court.

According to Jones’ attorney, Brian Driver of Rogers and Driver, she filed suit alleging that Huffman had non-consensual sex with Jones while she was a prisoner at the jail. Both Cox and Barren County were sued for failing to properly supervise Huffman. The lawsuit was filed in August 2009.

Huffman was indicted on charges of tampering with physical evidence, first-degree official misconduct, and second-degree sexual abuse on Dec. 12, 2007.

Huffman was also charged criminally for his contact with Jones. On May 12, 2008, Huffman pleaded guilty to charges of tampering with physical evidence, first-degree official misconduct and second-degree sexual abuse. The plea stemmed from crimes committed in October of 2007, in which he destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed or altered physical evidence he believed would be produced or used against him in court; subjected an inmate to sexual contact; and knowingly used his official position in an unauthorized way. The commonwealth recommended one year in jail and a fine of $1,000 for the tampering charge, and a year in jail for the other two counts, running concurrent with the first year. Sentencing was postponed and suspended pending a pre-sentence investigation by Circuit Judge Phil Patton.

Barren County attempted to get a summary judgment on the lawsuit filed against them on Dec. 30, 2009. The county contended that Huffman had received adequate training on sexual harassment policies.

In Jones’ suit against the county, Huffman claimed he was never trained that female inmates were unable to consent to sex while incarcerated and that he believed, because of the “sexually pervasive environment created by his supervisors,” a female inmate could consent to sex, according to court documents.

Castlen denied the motion. 

According to Driver’s response to the county’s motion for summary judgment, Huffman testified that he was never given training or told that inmates could not consent to sex with a jail employee.

When asked if he agreed that an inmate would not be capable of giving consent to any sexual contact with a jailer, Cox testified that the inmates “know they’re not held respon[sible] — they know the laws better than we do ... they really understand all that suff and keep up with it, and it looks to me like it gives them an open playing field, that they can just do anything they want to ... because the law says they can’t give consent.”

Driver argued Barren County failed to implement policies and procedures to train Huffman and also failed to hire an additional female deputy for the night shift, something Driver argues would have prevented harm to Jones. The county denies the claim, stating during his time at the jail, Huffman received the training, policies and procedures.

However, according to court documents, Captain Sharon Houchens testified that Huffman did not receive a copy of the police and procedure manual until July 24, 2007, five months after being sworn in. Huffman testified that he was not given a copy of the manual on that date, in fact, didn’t receive it until the day he was terminated from the jail. He also testified that he was neither trained nor given a copy of the document “Staff Sexual Misconduct.”

Cox admitted that employees were not trained on the entire contents of the manual and that employees were to “read it and understand it and it was up to the employees to ask again understand something [sic],” court documents said.

Huffman admitted he was told that females were not to be around males by themselves in the jail, as it says in the manual, but testified that the policy was not always followed and depended on the supervisor as to what policies were emphasized and enforced.

The county argued that it did not matter whether Huffman was trained in inmate consent of sex because some courts have held it unnecessary to train police officers that those in custody were not to be either raped or sexually assaulted. Driver argued that the cases cited by the county involve trained police officers, not a “low-level deputy jailer who had not even worked a full year and whose main prior job experience was working in fast-food restaurants.”

In the matter of the lack of a female deputy on duty, while acknowledging that no female deputy had been on duty, Cox testified that he had recommended to the Fiscal Court since 2003 that the jail needed an additional female deputy for the night shift.

“One of the reasons that I ... [was] concerned that we just had one female at the jail — is that it would give anybody more access, inmates and deputies — male deputies more access to the females because there wasn’t a female on the floor working at all times,” Cox testified. According to him, an extra female deputy was not approved until spring of 2008.

Huffman was immediately suspended and then terminated in the days after the incident came to light, according to Cox.

A bill has passed the state Senate unanimously and is in the House of Representatives that would make it a felony for employees of an agency or facility responsible for detention or treatment, including jailers from having sexual intercourse or contact with persons incarcerated, supervised, evaluated, or treated by those agencies.