‘It disgusts me’: Judge sends ex-jailer to prison for repeated sexual contact with inmate
Issuing a stern rebuke of actions he described as a betrayal of family and community trust that put “a black mark” on upstanding law enforcement officers everywhere, a Sedgwick County judge this week sent a former jailer to prison for having repeated sexual contact with a female inmate who was “particularly vulnerable” due to her own history of childhood abuse and complete reliance on detention deputies for safety while she was in custody.
On Tuesday following an emotional hearing where the ex-jailer, his lawyer, several of his friends and military buddies and even the victim herself in letters called for leniency in the form of a probation sentence, Sedgwick County District Judge Kevin O’Connor told Tony LoSavio that he would serve 31 months for his crimes.
The ruling not only follows the statutory presumption of prison for the convictions but is also in line with the prosecution’s push to incarcerate LoSavio for actions that Sedgwick County Assistant District Attorney Alice Osburn characterized in court as an abuse of power that preyed on the vulnerabilities of a woman LoSavio was supposed to protect.
The inmate was not in court Tuesday because she had already been transferred to prison to serve her own sentence.
But in a letter read aloud by the judge, the inmate said she felt LoSavio had used his authority to coerce her into performing sex acts she didn’t want.
“Everything I involved myself in with Mr. LoSavio felt wrong and uncomfortable from the start,” she wrote in the letter, noting that she had suffered abuse and molestation throughout her entire life that made her easier to victimize.
“He recognized my vulnerability and used it to his advantage,” she wrote.
She then added that “I would ask the court on my behalf to show leniency” because she understands “making mistakes.”
Before announcing the sentence, O’Connor told everyone in the courtroom that he was “struggling with what to do in this case.”
In the end, he placed blamed squarely on LoSavio’s shoulders, telling the 41-year-old that there was “no excuse” for a career law enforcement officer to have sexual contact with an inmate for months when he “should know better.”
LoSavio spent his career working in law enforcement and corrections and has a military background, according to statements given in court. By the time he was arrested in May 2021, he had been working at the Sedgwick County Jail for four years.
In Kansas, it’s against the law for law enforcement officers, corrections facility workers and others with authority over inmates to carry on any sort of sexual relationship with them, regardless of age or consent.
LoSavio’s case is among more-recent instances of Sedgwick County detention deputies facing charges for abusing their positions of power.
“It’s a sex crime, a sex act, sex crimes that went on over a long period of time. I have military people sending me letters attesting to the integrity of this individual,” O’Connor said, admonishing LoSavio for several minutes before handing down the prison sentence.
“These are not acts of a person with integrity. People (are) talking about giving opportunities or making a mistake. There’s making mistakes, and then there’s sexually violating another person.”
O’Connor went on to say that he found no “substantial and compelling reasons” to put LoSavio on probation, even though defense attorney Scott Poor had argued it was warranted because his client cooperated to resolve the case quickly, felt remorse and had the support of his wife, children and a local pastor who were all present in court.
But O’Connor disagreed.
“This was not a one off. This was many times where this inmate was victimized. And there will be no victim blaming in this courtroom because it’s not her fault. It’s entirely your fault, Mr. LoSavio,” the judge said.
“You took advantage of an extremely vulnerable individual. And it disgusts me.”
In letters to the court that the judge summarized aloud during Tuesday’s hearing, LoSavio’s friends and acquaintances described him as a trustworthy family man with integrity and a “good moral compass” who simply “messed up” and “has truly repented.”
In his own letter, LoSavio claimed his behavior was a misstep spurred by personal issues that had clouded his thinking and judgment. He betrayed his colleagues and “worst of all” hurt his wife, he wrote, but said he had “a passion” for helping people that he hopes to make use of again in the future.
Given a chance to address the court in person, LoSavio stood up, apologized “to everyone involved” and vowed to do “everything that I can to make this up to my family and to my wife.”
“I understand what I did was wrong,” he said, his voice shaking. “. . . I’m here to pay my debt.”
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office last year booked LoSavio into the jail on suspicion of eight counts of unlawful sexual relations with an inmate after a woman complained to authorities that he had been harassing her for nearly five months every time he worked in her pod.
Video evidence from the jail shows LoSavio visiting the inmate’s cell multiple times from February to May 2021. According to the woman’s report, LoSavio repeatedly made lewd comments toward her and asked her to fondle him and for oral sex.
During one interaction caught on the jail’s security film, LoSavio is seen going to her cell door, thrusting his hips and zipping his pants, according to an affidavit released by the court last year.
To prove that she was being sexually violated, the inmate saved some of LoSavio’s bodily fluids on a piece of cloth after one sexual encounter and turned it over to investigators, the affidavit says.
The 2021 report wasn’t the first received by jail staff about LoSavio’s sexual behavior with female inmates. Two different women housed at the jail also reported LoSavio over alleged sexual advances in 2019, according to records obtained by The Eagle.
But neither of those reports resulted in charges or reprimands, according to information from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney Marc Bennett. In the May 21, 2019, incident, a female inmate accused him of making a sexually explicit comment to her while standing outside of her cell, records show. Another woman reported LoSavio for allegedly inappropriately touching her in her cell on Dec. 23, 2019, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
He was allowed to continue working around female inmates until his arrest in the 2021 case.
LoSavio pleaded guilty on Feb. 23 to two of eight counts of unlawful sexual relations. The remainder were dismissed as part of his plea agreement.
The DA’s Office also agreed to not pursue charges in the December 2019 incident, his plea agreement says. Prosecutors declined to file charges in the May 2019 case not long after those allegations surfaced, records show.
The Eagle is not naming any of the inmates who lodged the complaints because they are victims of alleged sex crimes.
On Tuesday as the judge announced that he would go to prison instead of home to his family, LoSavio rocked back and forth and stared down at the table where he was sitting with his lawyer. At times, he sniffled and placed his head in one hand. His wife sobbed quietly from the courtroom gallery.
After O’Connor ended the hearing, deputies who used to be LoSavio’s colleagues snapped handcuffs around his wrists behind his back. They then escorted him out of the courtroom and to the Sedgwick County Jail, where he will await transfer into the state correction’s system.
