San Joaquin County correctional officer arrested on charges of sexually assaulting inmates
A San Joaquin County correctional officer arrested on suspicion of raping a woman in sheriff’s custody and engaging in illegal sex acts with two other jailed women over a five-year span was arraigned Tuesday in a Stockton courtroom.
Zachary Simmons is being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail in neighboring Stanislaus County.
Simmons, 34, was booked Monday into the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp — the same facility he patrolled as a jailer since 2008 — on felony allegations of rape using force or fear, sexual penetration with a foreign object and sexual activity with a confined adult in a detention facility. Simmons also faces a misdemeanor charge of communicating with a prisoner without consent.
The allegations involve three women held at the county jail from March 2015 to September 2020, according to a copy of the six-page complaint filed Oct. 1 by San Joaquin County prosecutors and obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
Prosecutors allege the county jailer forcibly raped the first woman between March and May 2015, and engaged in sexual acts with two other women in San Joaquin County custody at different times between 2015 and 2020.
Withrow’s office was alerted to “concerning conduct involving one of our own Correctional Officers,” in August, the sheriff said in the statement. By Aug. 26, after an internal investigation, Simmons was placed on administrative leave.
Sheriff’s investigators had enough evidence to forward to Salazar’s office for review.
Simmons turned himself over to San Joaquin County sheriff’s officials Monday, Sheriff Patrick Withrow said in a brief statement.
“We in law enforcement hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Withrow said in the statement announcing Simmons’ arrest. “That is why we have released this information regarding an employee.”
San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber-Salazar said Monday that her office is establishing a hotline for other potential victims of sexual attacks by correctional officers behind bars to come forward.
On Monday, Salazar called the alleged violations a “perversion of trust” and said her office is establishing the hotline for those in custody and those who served time at San Joaquin County Jail who may have been sexually assaulted by a correctional officer at the facility.
No formal complaint is needed, Salazar said, adding that people will be connected to recovery and trauma services.
“Correctional officers are in a position of trust and they have a duty to ensure the well-being of those in-custody under their care,” Salazar said in a statement Monday afternoon. “There is no greater perversion of that trust than the sexual assault of an inmate under your care. It is simply unacceptable.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 6:34 PM.
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