Ex-Idaho sheriff’s jail deputy could be sued after groping incarcerated woman

A former sheriff’s deputy was convicted of two misdemeanors after he kissed and groped a woman incarcerated at the Payette County Jail earlier this year. But most of the details of that case weren’t publicly available until now.

The woman’s attorney questioned why the case was “inexplicably sealed from public view” in a tort claim she filed on behalf of the woman. A data entry error “unintentionally hid” the criminal case against 34-year-old Devon Larsen on the state’s online public court database, Nate Poppino, a spokesperson for the court system, said.

“We are examining what happened to avoid it happening again,” he said.

The Idaho Statesman reached out to Payette County after a tort claim was filed last month on behalf of the victim, and days later, the case became public.

The Pocatello Police Department investigated the allegations against Larsen, which prompted the charges. Payette County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Duke called the investigation “thorough and fair. He didn’t respond to questions about why the case wasn’t available publicly but provided the Statesman with the probable cause affidavit in the case.

“The entire file and details were made available to my office, so we were able to make the appropriate charging decisions,” Duke wrote in an email in response to the questions, when the case was still publicly unavailable. “The defendant has been sentenced, and the matter is now concluded.”

The tort claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit, alleged Larsen violated the 22-year-old woman’s Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by cornering her in her cell, where he “groped her sexually and forcibly kissed her.” The woman was pregnant at the time, Boise-based attorney Jane Gordon wrote in the claim.

The tort claim asked for at least $300,000 in damages on behalf of the woman, who’s suffering from nausea, anxiety and sleeplessness as physical manifestations of emotional distress, Gordon wrote in the claim.

“Officer Larsen was able to move freely about the facility and go into inmates’ cells,” the claim said. “He used this freedom to frighten, harass, and assault (the woman).”

The Payette County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the jail, was also named in the claim. Sheriff Andy Creech told the Statesman that Larsen resigned from the agency but declined to provide additional information. Larsen was also decertified in July by the Idaho Peace Officers Standards and Training.

Larsen pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery and was sentenced in May to two years of supervised probation, court records showed. He also had to serve 20 days in the Washington County Jail, along with 20 days as part of the sheriff’s labor detail.

Third Judicial District Judge Brian Lee, at the sentencing hearing, called the charges “serious violations of law,” committed by Larsen when he was in a position of authority over the victim.

Larsen says sexual battery was a ‘fairly large mistake’

The Payette Police Department opened its investigation in mid-March after the victim reported to the Sheriff’s Office that Larsen had been coming into her cell “kissing her, touching her breast, butt and vagina,” according to the probable cause affidavit.

When interviewed by Payette Police Lt. Steven Bennett, the victim told him that she and Larsen had “flirtatious” personalities, but that he’d never been inappropriate during their previous conversations — until one day, she said, when he walked into her cell, pulled her close, and started kissing her, Bennett wrote in the affidavit. The woman described being shocked and feeling uncomfortable.

Larsen admitted to Bennett in a March interview that he’d kissed her and touched her breasts but denied touching her vagina, according to the affidavit. Larsen told Bennett he has been taught not to bond with people incarcerated at the jail, but that “it just happened.”

“Larsen told me that he was sorry for being jack a— before and that he enjoys his job and just messed up,” Bennett wrote.

The Payette County Prosecutor’s Office charged Larsen with two misdemeanor counts in March, and he quickly pleaded guilty in April. He didn’t have an attorney after the presiding judge, Lee, denied Larsen’s request for a public defender. He told Larsen he didn’t qualify, since he could have sold his pickup truck for money.

Larsen, during his three hearings before Lee, said he was confused with the legal process and agreed to “just go ahead and plead guilty.” He admitted to the charges but maintained that the woman consented to the contact, despite acknowledging that someone who is incarcerated can’t consent.

He called the incident a “fairly large mistake.”