Former corrections officer to face sexual battery charge

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — A former corrections officer, fired after he was accused of engaging in sexual conduct with a female inmate Sept. 5, will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on a charge of sexual battery.

A Trumbull County grand jury indicted George A. Palmer, 23, of Timber Court, Niles, on the third-degree felony charge after the county prosecutor’s office made a direct presentment of the case to the grand jury.

Sheriff Thomas Altiere fired Palmer on Sept. 8 and turned the matter over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

Altiere said Palmer had worked as a corrections officer eight months. He was still on probation, so he has no union rights to appeal the firing.

Altiere and Don Guarino, chief deputy, said cameras are not used inside inmate cells, where the offense is allegd to have occurred, but cameras outside the cell indicated Palmer spent seven minutes in the inmate’s cell on one occasion, 12 minutes on another occasion and 59 minutes in the cell that night altogether.

The normal amount of time for a jailer to be inside a cell would be 30 seconds or less per trip through the cell range, Guarino said.

Investigators also gathered witness statements from the inmate, an inmate in the next cell and another corrections officer, Guarino said.

If convicted on the sexual battery charge, Palmer could receive a jail sentence of up to five years.