Electronic Monitoring Contractor's Employee Charged With Raping Client

Marion County awarded a one-year contract to Sentinel Offender Services to provide electronic monitoring and equipment for the county's community corrections program beginning in February. Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi announced today that one of the contractor's employees has been charged with raping one of the home detention clients with whom he was charged with monitoring. The Star's Jon Murray writes:

Brima Kemokai, 26, is being held in Marion County Jail on $1 million bond on charges of rape, criminal confinement and two counts of official misconduct.

Prosecutors say he raped a woman who had come to a Community Corrections office June 6 to have faulty GPS monitoring equipment repaired. A security guard was the only other employee on duty that Saturday night while the two were in a dark office, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Kemokai worked for three or four months as an equipment technician for Sentinel Offender Services, which started a one-year contract in February to provide electronic monitoring and equipment for Community Corrections.

“This case illustrates the need for the phrase, ‘Who’s guarding the guards?’” Brizzi said during a news conference this afternoon with Community Corrections Director Tom Marendt. “I believe there is at least one other victim, if not more.”

Investigators are seeking the identity of the client Kemokai claimed to have had sex with, Brizzi said, and will look for other possible victims.

Murray's report says Kemokai is a citizen of Sierra Leone, a predominantly Muslim country on Africa's west coast. Murray quotes Brizzi as saying Kemokai is a permanent resident of the U.S. Community corrections director Tom Marendt says Kemokai passed Sentinel's background checks when he was hired, although Murray's report doesn't describe the extent of the background check performed. Sentinel's website says the company provides "world-class service and the highest level of offender electronic monitoring service." Tippecanoe County is identified as another customer of Sentinel. The company's website indicates Sentinel employs 325 staff in 40 field offices throughout the U.S. "A significant portion of our staff has extensive experience providing electronic monitoring and case management services," Sentinel's website claims. Kemokai had only worked for the company for three months according to Murray's story.

WIBC's report includes this comment from Brizzi concerning Sentinel's employment of an immigrant worker: "He'd also like to know why Sentinel is hiring people from other countries when there are so many Americans out of work these days." Brizzi mentions in the WIBC report that Sentinel's background check wouldn't have included criminal wrongdoing by Kemokai in Sierra Leone; however, if Kemokai is a permanent resident, he would have been subjected to a background check by USCIS, which should detect any serious criminal wrongdoing by a petitioning immigrant in his or her native country if the system is working properly. If Kemokai is convicted of these charges, he could be stripped of his permanent resident status and removed from the country upon completing his prison sentence.

A Fox59 News report claims Kemokai worked for three years as a corrections officer at the community corrections facility on Washington Street prior to going to work for Sentinel.