Sedgwick County Sheriff’s deputy arrested for unlawful sexual relations with inmate

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A Sedgwick County sheriff’s detention deputy has been arrested for having unlawful sexual relations with an inmate. Sheriff Jeff Easter said a female inmate came forward and reported that she had sexual contact with Tony LoSavio, a detention deputy.

The sheriff’s office investigated and found out that there had been at least eight incidents where there had been some type of fondling or touching of the deputy’s private parts by the inmate between February and May 1.

LoSavio was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County jail on eight counts of unlawful sexual relations with an inmate. He was relieved of duty without pay. He has worked at the jail for four years.

The sheriff’s office has had several incidents with detention or department deputies arrests this year. Easter said the vetting process for these positions has not changed. He said while people commit crimes all the time in the private sector that no one hears about, law enforcement has to be transparent and held to a higher standard.

“Is there a change in the way we’ve been training? There is not. Other than we tell them you can’t do this stuff. You can’t bring in contraband. You can’t have sex with inmates. I don’t know why folks still have the propensity to do these things, but it is our responsibility to flesh those out when they occur. It is our responsibility to hold those folks accountable which we do - by looking at it and investigating it criminally and by looking at it internally,” Easter said.

The sheriff’s said he has 80 open positions in his department. He said over the past month, about 100 people have applied, but only 14 were qualified.

“We’re not drawing a lot of quality people anymore,” said Easter. “We still hire quality people, but it’s not at the rate we used to.”

When asked if he believed the incidents could be related to employees being overworked, Easter said he would not make excuses for those who had committed criminal actions.

“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses for them committing criminal acts. They’re being overworked and they’re burned out, but that’s no excuse to commit a criminal act inside the jail at all,” Easter said.

The sheriff said he believes the last sexual crime at the jail occurred four years ago.