A former Utah State Prison officer has been charged with sexually abusing two inmates between January and March.
Jerry Gene Kessler, 34, West Jordan, has been charged with six counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, and forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. He was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.According to 3rd District Court charges filed Friday, a Utah State Prison inmate told Salt Lake County detective Mike Richards that between January and the second week of March, Kessler forced him to "go with him to a locked area in the basement of the prison about four to six times a month where he would then order (him) to perform" various sex acts.
The inmate was afraid of Kessler and told him that he did not want to engage in sexual activity, the charges state. At the time, Kessler was employed as a corrections sergeant at the Utah State Prison, "assigned to supervise correctional officers and inmates who worked in the culinary unit of the prison."
"Kessler told (the inmate) that if he refused to cooperate, Kessler would have him sent to maximum security or would have other inmates physically harm (him)," according to a search warrant filed in 3rd District Court.
Following one of the incidents, the inmate managed to spit semen into a rubber glove.
The inmate kept the glove on ice for about a week until he gave it to his girlfriend during a visit, the charges state. The girlfriend kept the glove frozen until she contacted Richards and gave him the glove on April 16.
"She gave me what appeared to be the finger portion of a rubber glove that contained some type of frozen substance," Richards wrote in the warrant.
Utah State Crime Lab criminologist Pilar Shortsleve analyzed the substance and determined it "contained semen," the charges state. The DNA composition of the sample was compared with Kessler's DNA from a blood sample.
The results "indicate an extremely high probability that the DNA samples match," the charges state.
During an April 24 search at Kessler's house, 5137 W. Case Mountain Road, police confiscated seven pairs of "men's bicycle-type shorts in various colors," the warrant states. The inmate had told Richards that during the assaults he had seen "Kessler wearing shorts that were different shades of red, green and blue . . . and multiple bright colors."
A second inmate also told police that on March 25, while working in the culinary unit, Kessler took him down into the basement through the kitchen and "locked the door behind them."
At the bottom of the stairs, Kessler said: "You are going to do as I ask and in return I'll not make your life hell," the charges state. Kessler then forced the inmate to perform sex acts.