Jail guard gets 1 year for sex with inmate

A man who once wore a King County Jail guard uniform will soon spend time behind bars for having sexual contact with a female inmate in 2005.

King County Superior Court Judge Nicole MacInnes sentenced Harland Richmond to a year in jail Friday, following his conviction in May for second-degree sexual misconduct.

MacInnes suspended all but four months of the sentence and placed him on probation for two years. He is expected to be sent to a jail outside King County.

Wearing a dark suit Friday, Richmond, 37, continued to profess his innocence.

Tony Savage, his attorney, called the inmate -- who once jumped up and down in the shower to get the officer's attention -- the aggressor.

But the judge told Richmond that the law clearly prohibits jail guards from having sex with inmates.

"It's not an issue of who was the initiator," she said, noting that the case was about "boundaries."

"You don't have to like them... ," MacInnes said of the inmates, "but they are in your power and under your control."

As the judge issued the sentence, Richmond's family wept.

Deputy Prosecutor Lisa Johnson said the victim does not speak English and is from another country.

"He has abused the trust that was placed in him," she said.

MacInnes ordered that Richmond not be employed in law enforcement, corrections or security work at least while he is on probation.

He should have understood those boundaries and his role as a guard, especially since he comes from a law enforcement family, she said.

His father was a major for what is now the King County Sheriff's Office. His brother is a King County Jail corrections officer.

While prosecutors asked for a six-month jail term, Savage requested home detention, saying Richmond and his children have suffered enough.

In May, a Superior Court jury convicted him of second-degree sexual misconduct, a gross misdemeanor, but acquitted him of having sex with another female inmate.

Richmond maintains that the allegations against him surfaced because he would not get drugs for a woman in the jail.

In March, he lost his job after being placed on paid leave for more than a year.

But Richmond will not appeal Friday's sentence, Savage and his family said.

"The sad thing is, he's innocent," said his brother Glenn Richmond.