Lawyers: Jail guards are scapegoats in attack on teen

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August 12, 2008
By Jim Hannah
The Kentucky Enquirer

COVINGTON, Ky. -- Lawyers for two former Grant County jail guards accused of allowing inmates to sexually assault a 10th-grader locked up overnight say their clients are scapegoats.

Shawn Freeman and Wesley Lanham were some of the newest jail hires when the molestation occurred on Valentine's Day 2003, Lanham's attorney, Dan Dickerson, told the jury yesterday during opening arguments in the guards' trial in federal court.

He said the defendants did not plot with the sergeant on duty to "scare" the teen caught trying to outrun a state trooper who clocked him going 35 mph over the speed limit.

"There is no conspiracy," Dickerson said.

Federal civil rights prosecutor Forrest Christian told jurors that Freeman and Lanham showed deliberate indifference when they stood back and did nothing to prevent the 5-foot-8, 120-pound young man from being transferred to a cell with 14 felons, one of whom showed an inclination for deviant sexual acts.

If convicted of conspiring to violate the teen's civil rights, Freeman and Lanham could be sentenced to life in prison.

"Every person in the United States has a right under the Constitution to be protected, to be free from the kind of illegal punishment (the teen) received that night," Christian said.