(Breaking news) Jail officer accused of sex act with inmate

Friday, June 19, 2009

A St. Mary's correctional officer has been suspended without pay, the sheriff's office reported this week, after court papers were issued alleging she fondled a male inmate's genitals last winter in the county jail.

Deborah A. Bartholow, 44, of Country Lakes was charged through a summons with the offense of engaging in sexual contact on Feb. 20 with the inmate, identified in court papers as 22-year-old Charles Edwin Compton.

Bartholow has been a correctional officer at the detention center for four years. A conviction for the misdemeanor charge obtained by St. Mary's detectives carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail.

Beginning in 2007, Compton has served an 18-month sentence for resisting arrest and currently is serving an 18-month sentence for resisting arrest and the possession of cocaine. He wrote to a judge earlier this month asking that a third 18-month sentence for a the possession of cocaine and driving with a suspended license be dismissed, in part because of his completion of the jail's culinary arts program and work-incentive service at a county museum.

"The 26 months that I got in now has not gone by wasted," Compton wrote.

jwharton@somdnews.com