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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – A former prison assistant who admitted to having sex with several inmates at Lerdo Prison said the low level of staff at the facility contributed to his behavior, documents show judicial.
Brandon Lawrence, 21, told detectives the sex acts would never have happened if he had had a partner, according to the documents. He said he was not a bad person and wished he had lived up to the standards of the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.
When asked if he had a message he wanted to share with other prison staff, Lawrence replied, “Don’t be stupid,” the documents say.
Lawrence is charged with four crimes: three counts of sexual activity with an inmate and one count of attempted sexual activity with an inmate. He is released on $ 40,000 bail and has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Lawrence admitted to having sexual contact with three inmates, according to the documents. Some of the encounters took place in storage rooms, others in offices at the Lerdo remand center, he said. They happened in late 2020 and earlier this year.
He denied the allegations of a fourth woman, but her story matches the accounts provided by the other women.
The fourth woman told investigators she had been assigned as a “detained worker” whose duties consisted primarily of cleaning the facility. Other tasks assigned to detained workers include laundry and painting.
She said a male detention officer she identified as Lawrence told her to follow him into a janitor’s closet to drain the water from the mop.
After emptying the dirty water, Lawrence grabbed her and asked her if she wanted to “connect,” she told detectives. She told him no and Lawrence pulled her closer.
The woman told detectives that she wanted to “put them on” but was afraid of the repercussions she would suffer for hitting a detention officer.
She said Lawrence asked her to remove her face mask but she refused, according to the documents. She said they hadn’t kissed and nothing else had happened.
Another woman interviewed by investigators first said that nothing inappropriate had happened between her and a detention officer at the facility. Detectives told him they had heard differently. They assured her that she was not in trouble.
The woman started to cry and described an encounter with Lawrence that occurred in a storage cupboard after he asked her to put away a mop bucket, the documents said.
Lawrence took off her face mask and kissed her, she told detectives. He initiated a sexual act with her, she said.
The detectives asked her if she was scared.
“Yes, I just didn’t know what to do,” she said according to the documents.
She told detectives Lawrence hadn’t physically forced her to do the deed, but she felt like she had no choice. She said she was disgusted by what had happened.
When initially questioned, Lawrence denied behaving inappropriately with inmates.
Detectives conducted more interviews and gathered additional evidence, including surveillance footage and prison records. Some of the footage showed Lawrence walking into a storage closet with an inmate for nearly three minutes, according to the documents. There was no camera showing the inside of the closet.
Investigators discovered that Lawrence had a fake Facebook account which he used to send messages to inmates, according to the documents. They discovered that he was using a law enforcement database to search for detainees when he had no legitimate reason to do so.
In a follow-up interview on April 6, detectives confronted Lawrence with their findings. They told him that they knew he was engaging in sexual acts with inmates and to tell them the truth.
Lawrence admitted to the sex acts and described them and where they took place, according to the documents.
He told detectives he was sorry for what had happened. During the interview, he wrote an apology to the women on a piece of paper and gave it to the detectives.
There were three separate excuses – one for each inmate he admitted to having sex with – and each had a similar message, according to the documents.
One of them said, “I mean I’m sorry about everything. I am a much better officer and person. Hope you have a good life. – Laurent.
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