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Jan 29, 2009 4:26 pm US/Central
Ex-N. Texas Sheriff Pleads Guilty To Sex Assault
WICHITA FALLS (AP) ―
A former North Texas sheriff pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to sexually assaulting a woman, admitting he told her it was the only way to avoid jail for a drug charge.
Former Montague County Sheriff Bill Keating faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in May for the civil rights violation.
He answered "yes, sir" when U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert K. Roach asked if he admitted to committing all elements of the offense listed in the document, including having an "evil motive" by intending to deprive the victim of her rights and causing her bodily injury.
Roach did not detain Keating, saying he did not pose harm to the community and wasn't a flight risk because of his "stable marriage" and family ties to the area. But Roach ordered Keating, who recently surrendered his Texas peace officer's license, to turn in his weapons and meet other conditions.
Keating, 62, refused to comment afterward as a federal employee whisked him out of the courthouse.
In the signed plea documents, Keating admitted to forcing the woman to perform a sex act after he and deputies went to her house to arrest her boyfriend one day in November. The one-term sheriff was defeated in a runoff after the March primary election, but his replacement did not take office until earlier this month.
"It's extremely troubling," assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Calvert said after the Thursday hearing. "This can and should serve as a wake-up call to all individuals who hold positions of trust."
Calvert said he did not oppose Keating's remaining free until the sentencing because this crime and other alleged misdeeds happened when he was acting as the sheriff. Keating will no longer have access to his gun, badge or the jail, Calvert said.
Keating and some jail personnel also face state charges related to having sex with inmates and taking illegal substances into the jail, Montague County District Attorney Jack McGaughey said. He declined to reveal specifics Tuesday but said he would present cases to a grand jury in February.
Although Keating probably will be in prison for some time because there is no parole in the federal system, McGaughey said he plans to pursue state charges against the former sheriff.
"I would like to have the public know everything that was involved here," McGaughey said after the hearing. "I would like to see the full picture emerge."
The jail in Montague, 50 miles southeast of Wichita Falls, was immediately shut down and inmates transferred to a nearby facility after Sheriff Paul Cunningham took office Jan. 1. He found that surveillance cameras' cords had been disconnected; recliners were in cells; some bathrooms and cells could be locked from the inside; and inmates had made partitions out of paper towels to block jailers' view inside their cells. One alarming discovery was a type of rack made of nails.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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