[Hat tip: John-David Filing.]Authorities have charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail.
Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official....
The lawsuit, filed by 12 former inmates, alleges the sheriff's employees had them engage in wet T-shirt contests and offered cigarettes to those who would flash their breasts.
One prisoner alleged she became a jail trusty with more freedom after agreeing to perform a sex act on Burgess, but lost that status when she later refused.
Burgess also faces two counts each of sexual battery, rape by instrumentation and subornation of perjury, and one count each of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses, indecent exposure and kidnapping.
Cain't Say No
Comments to "Cain't Say No":
Abdul | April 21, 2008, 8:25am | #
offered cigarettes to those who would flash their breasts.If he'd stuck to beads, he'd have no problem. but cigarettes? Now the nanny state will throw the book at him.
There are some charges in there that I've never seen in an article. He had to work pretty hard to get all of those offenses, eh? He must be exhausted.
Lucian | April 21, 2008, 8:39am | #
Hey, I saw that movie on Skinemax around 1994. Granted, the these kinds of movies have a long and sordid history streching back quite a ways.... oh ... you mean this wasn't a movie script?Nevermind...
Episiarch | April 21, 2008, 8:48am | #
What always gets me about crazy shit like this is that I wonder "why do these people think they can get away with this?"Then I realize they think that because they mostly do, that it is far too common, and I get depressed.
ktc2 | April 21, 2008, 8:52am | #
Serves 'em right for gettin' high! Damn druggies!/sarcasm off
When you consider most prisoners these days are incarcerated for non violent offenses it's even worse. Most people in our prison system shouldn't be there to begin with.
jmr | April 21, 2008, 9:00am | #
One would think they could have mentioned, at least with an abbreviation, his party. Would anyone be shocked if that abbreviation were "D."?? I doubt it...JMR
John-David | April 21, 2008, 9:05am | #
jmr,It is, indeed, "D". Just like the other great official from Oklahoma, the "penis pump judge".
sage | April 21, 2008, 9:08am | #
Caption Contest!"Would you like a mustache ride? Let me rephrase that - Hop on, prison wench!"
P Brooks | April 21, 2008, 9:42am | #
It's guys like this who prevent me from being unequivocally against the death penalty.This sort of abuse of position and authority is grotesque; does he have lampshades made of tattooed human skin in his living room?
J sub D | April 21, 2008, 9:53am | #
I have an extremely high disgust threshold. If the charges against Mike Burgess are indeed true, that threshold has been cleared with much room to spare.Imagine a daughter, sister in the county lock-up for a dope offense and her jailer coercing her for sex.
Of course he's a (D), these are a heterosexual offenses. ;-)
R C Dean | April 21, 2008, 9:56am | #
oh ... you mean this wasn't a movie scriptNot yet. But now that can be Based On a True Story, its inevitable.
Casting suggestions, anyone?
Jennifer | April 21, 2008, 10:00am | #
So who else is facing charges? I doubt the sheriff pulled these stunts all alone.Another question: does Oklahoma have the same jail/prison dichotomy as other states? I'd always known "jail" as the place where you either await trial, or serve sentences of less than a year. In other words, we're NOT talking about a group of hardened criminals here.
And now cue the cop apologists who insist such behavior is really remarkably rare.
mk | April 21, 2008, 10:02am | #
Casting suggestions, anyone?Alas, Wendy O. Williams has left this world.
Guy Montag | April 21, 2008, 10:04am | #
Can John Stagliano do the documentry? This and other tough questions are the one the American People want asked and answered at 1130 hrs today on the steps of the E. Barrett Pettyman Courthouse at 333 Constitution Avenue, Washington DC.P Brooks | April 21, 2008, 10:05am | #
Any deputy who knew about this and did nothing to stop it should face the exact same charges and penalties.Fucking pigs.
Rimfax | April 21, 2008, 10:22am | #
So, what's the over-under on his eventual sentence? I bet he gets a break for his years of "service". Har!Seriously, I'm guessing that he gets 3 years and he serves 1. A less upstanding (read:connected) citizen would probably get 25 and serve 18 of it.
Disclaimer: I know fuck-all about these things. I am not a lawyer. I'm just a cynical turd.
LarryA | April 21, 2008, 10:27am | #
It's a good thing we're passing more laws to let law enforcement deal with Internet predators, right?As county sheriff he would be in charge of the county jail. Prisoners doing less than a year for heinous crimes like unpaid traffic citations, small hot checks, public intoxication, minor possession charges, etc.
mk | April 21, 2008, 10:34am | #
heinous crimes like unpaid traffic citations, small hot checks, public intoxication....Dancing at the Jefferson Memorial..
ktc2 | April 21, 2008, 10:52am | #
Ok, I extend my conditional support of the death penalty from just for polititians to just for polititians and law enforcement agents.J sub D | April 21, 2008, 10:58am | #
So who else is facing charges? I doubt the sheriff pulled these stunts all alone.Jennifer nails it. It's only a few bad apples. It's an isolated incident. Bullshit, of course. The sheriif had co-conspirators or at very best, silent enablers. The blue wall of silence is an open sore on the rule of law.
Guy Montag | April 21, 2008, 11:19am | #
Ok, I extend my conditional support of the death penalty from just for polititians to just for polititians and law enforcement agents.Can the method involve milk?
Dave | April 21, 2008, 11:38am | #
From a friend who lives out that way:"[H]e was told by the judge hearing his case to resign--or be put in jail with an extreme bond. Can't imagine why he wouldn't want to do that, now can you?"
Totally Inappropriate Comment | April 21, 2008, 12:36pm | #
There were pictures leaked from Abu Fuckin Ghraib, but not this? How disappointing.Frank_A | April 21, 2008, 12:45pm | #
"Where you from wo-mon?""Salo, Texas, sir."
"Shit, only steers and queers come from Salo, Texas! Now go eat that pile of feces! Me, the Duke, the Bishop, and the President will cut off your tongue in a jiffy..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o2ul-UwOvU
Cosmotarain Overlord | April 21, 2008, 1:54pm | #
Give this public servant a break! He is risking was life everyday to help keep you people safe from the criminals and terrorists that live amongst us. A couple of errors in judgement should not soil his years of patriotic honorable service. I am confident that we will find that this was the exception rather than the rule and it is horrible for some of you people to imply that this happens in other places. Take it from me, 99.99% of police and other public sevants want nothing but the best for the great citizens of this country.Hmmm... the movie that this reminded me of had a waifish blonde, a very busty brunette with curly hair, was made in the early 90's I think... Low budget skinemax.... the plot was basically the small town sheriff turning his prison into a brothel for wealthy clients, drugging the inmates to ensure compliance... the cops would plant drugs on any attractive motorists they pulled over to get them into the prison... Of course, the blonde chick was the sister of one of the prisoners and purposely got captured so that she could take them down from the inside... I know someone other than me has seen this... fess up! The name was probably something like Desert Heat or somesuch... All of those women in prison movies had names with Heat in it somewhere...
jtuf | April 21, 2008, 4:00pm | #
If he is guilty, I am glad they caught him. Now if prosecutors would also stop convict on convict attacks prisons might be more effective.Guy Montag | April 21, 2008, 4:01pm | #
He is risking was life everyday to help keep you people safe from the criminals and terrorists that live amongst us.Nobodyn mentioned Canadians before this. You have changed my mind CO, give the guy a break.