Man gets 3 years in prision for having sex with inmate

Judge Stuard said Vaughn showed no remorse.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- In a case a judge says was "extremely troublesome" for him, a former resident supervisor at a community corrections facility was sentenced to three years in prison for having consensual sex with a female inmate.
Damon Vaughn, of Kenilworth Avenue, appeared before Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and was handcuffed Thursday to begin serving his sentence. The charge stems from his employment at the Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program here.
In January, Vaughn was found guilty of four counts of sexual battery. Judge Stuard conducted the trial without a jury.
"This defendant has used extremely poor judgment for which he is paying a terrible price," Judge Stuard said before the sentencing. "The thing that bothers me more than anything -- kind of determinative of what I have to do -- is you've done this thing and not shown remorse."
Judge Stuard said the other salient point for him in his sentencing was that Vaughn was working in a position of trust at the time of the crime.
Atty. Thomas E. Zena of Boardman, who represented Vaughn, said the victim had made damaging statements in the presentence investigation regarding the crime that she did not say during the trial.
Testimony
Judge Stuard said the more relevant statement was the one the victim made in court -- that the sex was consensual and she had never meant to get Vaughn into trouble over it. An investigation started at the facility after numerous rumors circulated there, the victim testified.
Judge Stuard noted Vaughn has "virtually no past record," served 11 years in the military, works and has a child in high school and another in college.
Chuck Morrow, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, had asked the court to sentence Vaughn to four years.
In addition to the prison, Vaughn will also have to register as a sexually oriented offender for 10 years when he is released from prison.
After the sentencing, Morrow said the sentence should send an important message -- that corrections officers cannot engage in sexual conduct with inmates, whether the act is consensual or not. The state law relating to the offense also covers other people in positions of authority, such as teachers, Morrow said.
During the trial, a Willoughby woman said she and Vaughn had consensual sexual intercourse on two occasions in a staff restroom in April or May 2004.
Vaughn said that they did not -- and that he had not interacted with the woman in anything other than ordinary ways.
He was eventually fired from the job he held for about two years.
NEOCAP, which has 125 beds, has a staff of 58 full-time and 11 part-time employees. Since it opened in 1997, it has provided common pleas judges with an alternative to prison or parole for nonviolent offenders.
runyan@vindy.com