Some Guards At Md. Jail Have Arrest Records

The nine officers at the Prince George's County jail who got into trouble after they were hired were still listed as jail employees on a December 2007 county personnel list, the most current available. Herron would not say whether or how they were disciplined or whether any had been placed on administrative leave.

Officials with the Prince George's Correctional Officers Association did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

Three of the officers were convicted, including one for negligent driving, Bradley for assault and Kenneth A. Bruce for drunken driving after a guilty plea in Charles County in 2006. He was put on supervised probation by a judge, with the condition that he had to get permission to own or carry a gun. In a letter to the judge, Bruce asked for the condition to be lifted, citing his job as a correctional officer.

"I do not pose any danger while carrying a weapon in the course of my duties on or off the job," he wrote. The judge granted the request.

A year earlier, a Prince George's County judge had issued a protective order against Bruce and forced him to temporarily leave the family's home after his wife reported that he had threatened her and had access to a gun on the job, along with several rifles and pistols.

According to her petition, Bruce told his wife, "You better be glad you are not dead by now." The case was later dismissed at his wife's request.

"Whatever happened in my business is my business," he said when contacted by phone by a Post reporter.

When asked to explain the arrests, he said, "Here's my explanation right here," and hung up.

Other officers were also served with domestic violence protective orders, including David Nkemtitah, whose ex-girlfriend filed a petition for protection this year saying he had restrained her in the bathroom while his new girlfriend bit her and hit her in the head with high-heeled shoes.

Nkemtitah did not return calls seeking comment.

David Fathi, U.S. program director of the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said: "Being a corrections officer . . . is a stressful job that requires self-control, the ability to control anger. Someone who has a demonstrated inability to control anger is singularly ill-suited to be a corrections officer."

In several cases in which jail officers were charged with crimes, including theft and assault, prosecutors indefinitely postponed their cases or decided not to pursue the charges.