03/29/2006

Prankster suspended

Corrections officer put toothpaste on sleeping inmate

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

sherimcwhirter@hotmail.com

GAYLORD — An Otsego County corrections officer was suspended after she smeared toothpaste on a jail inmate's body while he slept.

Jody Evans, 32, of Gaylord, received a three-day suspension without pay this month for what sheriff's officials described as a joke that went too far. She spread toothpaste on the unidentified inmate's stomach March 8 and was suspended for conduct unbecoming an officer, said Otsego Sheriff Jim McBride.

"It was a practical joke and jail staff have to be above that. They can't stoop to practical joking and she was told that," McBride said.

The incident was investigated when it happened on March 8, said jail administrator Lt. Brian Webber, who learned of it from other jail employees.

The toothpaste incident was not captured on jailhouse video surveillance equipment, Webber said.

Evans declined to comment when reached at her residence. She has been a jail employee since August 1998, said John Burt, Otsego County administrator.

It's not her first time in trouble for inappropriate contact with inmates.

She previously was sanctioned for a January 2002 incident, during which she and another female corrections officer admitted to applying makeup to male inmates at the jail.

She received a written reprimand that was erased from her employment record after one year, according to a union contract stipulation, McBride said.

That incident resulted in a lawsuit filed in December 2003 that was settled a year later for $1,500. The other female corrections officer, LeeAnn Bentley, was suspended and eventually resigned her post.