Three Hamilton County jailers suspended with pay

Three Hamilton County corrections officers are on suspension with pay amid allegations that one carried on a months-long relationship with an inmate which was “sexual in nature,” and another two “roughed up” an inmate during booking, according to jail Chief Ron Parson.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is not releasing the officers’ names until internal affairs investigations are complete, Parson said.

An investigation into a relationship that a female corrections officer carried on with an inmate started today, he said.

“We intercepted some phone call conversations between her and an inmate that were sexual in nature,” Parson said. “We soon found out that this had been going on for months.”

Investigators will review tapes of phone calls made from the inmate to the officer’s cell phone that date all the way back to May, Parson said.

The other two male officers were suspended last week after allegations surfaced that they had been too rough with an inmate charged with public intoxication as they took him to a holding cell last week.

“The entire incident is caught on tape,” said Parson. “It shows what happened pretty clearly.”

He said he could not elaborate further about what the tape shows until the investigation is complete.

For more details, read tomorrow’s Times Free Press.