CARO — A resigned Tuscola County Sheriff’s Department deputy accused of having sex with a female prisoner on the hood of his patrol unit was sentenced this morning to 185 days in jail, and to wear an electronic tether for another 180 days after his release.

Dale L. Tompkins, 41, pleaded no contest to felony charges of accepting a bribe and of voluntarily allowing a prisoner escape. Both counts are felonies punishable by up to 15 years behind bars and a $3,000 fine.

Tuscola County Circuit Judge Patrick R. Joslyn also placed Tompkins on probation for three years when sentencing him.

Prosecutors maintain Tompkins, while in uniform and on duty, accepted a female prisoner’s offer to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for her escape from his patrol car in July 2010.

Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene called Tompkins’ conduct “outrageous.”

“It remains incomprehensible to me how (Tompkins) could think that this could possibly end well,” Reene said after the sentencing.

The woman testified in August that, while headed toward the Tuscola County Jail as a prisoner in Tompkins’ patrol car, he accepted her offer and had intercourse with her on the hood of his police cruiser.

The woman testified that prior to the intercourse, she performed oral sex on the deputy and let him use his hand to engage in sexual penetration with her.

On July 5, 2010, Michigan State Police arrested the woman in Genesee County on a warrant alleging probation violation in Tuscola County, where she had been convicted of second-degree home invasion, according to prosecutors. State police had turned over the woman to Tompkins for transfer to jail in Caro, but the pair never made it there, she testified.

Tompkins’ lawyer, Caro attorney Greg Bringard, asked the judge not to send Tompkins to jail, saying he had no prior criminal record and that he’s no threat to anyone.

“He can’t be with other prisoners in the (Tuscola) County Jail,” Bringard told the judge. “There is a safety issue.”

Prosecutors didn’t disclose where Tompkins will serve his jail time. He was granted work-release privileges to travel to and from his job at a tool-and-die plant.

As a convicted felon, Tompkins can’t work again as a police officer in Michigan, according to Reene.

“Unless there’s a police department that has dramatically different rules than any I’m familiar with, he will be precluded from that line of employment and I think that’s a good idea,” Reene said.