Juvenile Detention Center Employee Accused of Raping Teen

A juvenile detention center employee has been arrested for rape after a 17-year-old girl says the man sexually assaulted her while she was in custody last week.

According to reports, Edmond police arrested the teen on a public intoxication complaint in the early hours of September 3. They transported her to the Community Intervention Center in Oklahoma City, a facility run by Youth Services of Oklahoma County under contract with the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs.

The teen says that when she arrived at the facility, an employee took her to a closet to get a pillow, where he fondled her breast. She says he later showed her naked pictures of himself. Eventually, she went to sleep, she told authorities, but the man woke her up and took her back to the closet, where he raped her.

The girl said that she did not resist because she was still intoxicated. She told police that she knew what could happen if she went to the storage room with the man, but said that since she did not see any other staff members present, she did not think that screaming for help would do any good.

The teen did not report the rape to other staffers, only telling her mother of the allegations after her release the following evening. The girl's mother waited until Tuesday to report the alleged rape, citing the holiday weekend.

Earlier this week, police arrested Cornelius Deontay Jackson, 23, of Oklahoma City, on a complaint of second degree rape. He has not been formally charged as of this writing.or

In Oklahoma, rape is classified as either rape in the first degree or rape in the second degree. In general, a charge of first degree rape is reserved for child rape, forcible rape, or rape of an unconscious or mentally impaired person. Second degree rape typically refers to "consensual" sex with a person who is legally unable to provide consent as a result of age or custodial status.

In 21 O.S. § 1114 first degree rape is defined as sexual intercourse under the following circumstances:

  • rape committed by a person over eighteen (18) years of age upon a person under fourteen (14) years of age; or  
  • rape committed upon a person incapable through mental illness or any unsoundness of mind of giving legal consent regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; or  
  • rape accomplished where the victim is intoxicated by a narcotic or anesthetic agent, administered by or with the privity of the accused as a means of forcing the victim to submit; or  
  • rape accomplished where the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused; or  
  • rape accomplished with any person by means of force, violence, or threats of force or violence accompanied by apparent power of execution regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; or  
  • rape by instrumentation resulting in bodily harm is rape by instrumentation in the first degree regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; or  
  • rape by instrumentation committed upon a person under fourteen (14) years of age

Under Oklahoma law, all other acts of rape defined in § 1111 that arenot stipulated as acts of first degree rape are charged as second degree rape. These include the following:

  • Where the victim is under sixteen (16) years of age, but at least 14, even if that person "consents" to sex
  • Where the victim submits to sexual intercourse under the belief that the person committing the act is a spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused or by the accused in collusion with the spouse with intent to induce that belief. In all cases of collusion between the accused and the spouse to accomplish such act, both the spouse and the accused, upon conviction, shall be deemed guilty of rape;
  • Where the victim is under the legal custody or supervision of a state agency, a federal agency, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision and engages in sexual intercourse with a state, federal, county, municipal or political subdivision employee or an employee of a contractor of the state, the federal government, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision that exercises authority over the victim;
  • Where the victim is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is less than twenty (20) years of age and is a student, or under the legal custody or supervision of any public or private elementary or secondary school, junior high or high school, or public vocational school, and engages in sexual intercourse with a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is an employee of the same school system; or
  • Where the victim is nineteen (19) years of age or younger and is in the legal custody of a state agency, federal agency or tribal court and engages in sexual intercourse with a foster parent or foster parent applicant.

The last act of second degree rape--sex between a foster parent and child aged 19 or younger--is a new amendment to existing rape law. This amendment will take effect November 1, 2015.

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