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After a county jail inmate complains about a detention officer, a video shows him performing oral sex on the man, authorities say.
By DEBORAH O'NEIL
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 1, 2000
LARGO -- A veteran detention officer at the Pinellas County Jail was arrested Thursday morning after authorities captured him on video performing oral sex on a male inmate, authorities said.
The detention officer, Scott Robert Bartoszak, 38, was arrested at midnight when he reported for work and was charged with sexual battery. He resigned when authorities showed him the video and was being held at the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, sheriff's officials said.
The inmate had complained about the officer, who performed the sex act against the inmate's will, officials said.
Sheriff Everett Rice said his office is investigating whether similar crimes occurred with any other inmates, but no other complaints about Bartoszak have been lodged. Officials said this was the first time a detention officer has been charged with sexually battering an inmate.
"This appears to be an isolated incident," Rice said. "I don't think it's widespread."
Rice said he was "very, very disappointed."
"It would be pure speculation to try and figure out why he did something like this," he said.
The 53-year-old inmate, whose name was not released because of the nature of the crime, has spent a year in the jail and remains there, authorities said.
The inmate filed a written complaint against Bartoszak on Saturday alleging the officer had made verbal sexual advances. Bartoszak said the inmate "looked good," said Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Cal Dennie.
On Sunday, the inmate filed a second complaint that accused Bartoszak of yanking down the inmate's pants and fondling his genitals, Dennie said.
Sheriff's authorities put a camera in the inmate's cell to see whether they could film Bartoszak doing any of the things the inmate had alleged.
Shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday, the camera recorded Bartoszak performing oral sex on the inmate. The inmate didn't put up a fight, but the action was against the inmate's will, Dennie said.
It happened in the inmate's individual cell in the maximum security Delta wing while Bartoszak was doing his rounds alone, Dennie said.
"He had an opportunity to be alone with the inmate," Rice said. "That's not unusual. The officers don't always work in pairs."
Bartoszak's shift ended at 8 a.m. and he went home. That day, officials reviewed the tape, and when he reported for his next shift at midnight Wednesday, they confronted the officer with the video.
"He has admitted to the act after seeing himself on the film," Dennie said.
Bartoszak, a Seminole High School graduate, is married, and insurance records in his personnel file show that he has two daughters. He has been a detention officer for the Sheriff's Office since 1990.
His annual evaluations show that he was a trusted and well-regarded officer. In March, his supervisor noted that he had been assigned to manage the psychiatric inmates in Delta wing along with other assignments.
"He maintains a professional attitude when working with inmates," his supervisor wrote in his 1999 evaluation. "He is a valuable member of the squad."
Bartoszak has had only one disciplinary action in the past 10 years. In 1996, he was suspended for one day after he was found sleeping in a day room with his head resting against a window. Bartoszak apologized and said he had been up tending to a sick family member.
This is Bartoszak's third stint working in the jail. According to his application to the Sheriff's Office, he worked as a reserve officer at the Indian Rocks Beach Police Department for a year until August 1983, when he left to work at the Sheriff's Office. He moved to Michigan in 1984, where he worked as a mailroom clerk.
In March 1985, Bartoszak was back again at the Sheriff's Office working as a corrections officer for four years. In 1989, he went to work for the Kent County Sheriff's Department in Grand Rapids, Mich., and left there to join the Sheriff's Office again a year later.
-- Times reporter Deborah O'Neil can be reached at 445-4159 or at deborah@sptimes.com.