A former corrections officer at a federal detention heart in downtown Los Angeles was sentenced this week to 3 months in jail for mendacity to investigators about sexual exercise he had with an inmate beneath his supervision, prosecutors mentioned.
Abel Concho, 54, pleaded responsible final yr to 1 rely of constructing false statements.
Throughout an interview with federal investigators in July 2021, Concho mentioned he had by no means had sexual contact with the inmate on the Metropolitan Detention Heart, in keeping with the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Central District of California.
“After initially denying he had any sexual contact with the sufferer, Concho then falsely said that he had sexual activity with the sufferer simply ‘as soon as (or) twice’ that he may recall,” prosecutors mentioned Monday in a launch.
In response to the U.S. lawyer’s workplace, Concho had sexual contact with the inmate about 35 instances.
In his plea settlement, prosecutors mentioned, Concho admitted that he knew intercourse between a jail officer and an inmate can’t be thought of consensual beneath federal regulation and the worker code of conduct.
“Having abused his energy in supervising the halls of a federal establishment to commit sexual abuse after which mendacity as much as cowl up these gross abuses, justice calls for that defendant ought to now spend time on the opposite aspect of the bars,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Concho additionally falsely denied that he had supplied a cellphone for the inmate to take nude images.
“In truth, he illegally smuggled a cellphone into MDC and gave the cellphone to the sufferer to take nude images for him, which the sufferer then did,” prosecutors mentioned.
As a part of the plea settlement, Concho is barred from searching for a regulation enforcement job or a job that requires a firearm.
Along with the three-month jail sentence, Concho may even face three months of dwelling confinement and should pay $9,500 in restitution to the sufferer.
