Ex-corrections officer pleads guilty to charges

Staff report

WARREN

A former corrections officer at the Trumbull County jail has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for engaging in sexual conduct with a female inmate while on the job in September 2009.

George A. Palmer, 24, of North Road, pleaded guilty to obstructing official business and public indecency this week in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

He will be sentenced by Judge W. Wyatt McKay after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a pre-sentence investigation.

Palmer was indicted on a felony sexual-battery charge after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation investigated allegations against Palmer at the request of Sheriff Tom Altiere.

Altiere fired Palmer Sept. 8, 2009, after Palmer had worked as a corrections officer for eight months. Palmer was still on probation and had no union rights to an appeal.

The sex is alleged to have taken place in the inmate’s cell. The jail has surveillance cameras but none inside inmates’ cells, officials said.

Surveillance videos indicated that Palmer spent seven minutes in the inmate’s cell on one occasion Sept. 5, 2009, 12 minutes on another occasion and 59 minutes that night altogether.

Normally, a corrections officer spends no more than 30 seconds in an inmate’s cell while traveling through a cell range, officials said.