photo by: Mike Yoder

A Douglas County sheriff’s deputy assigned to the jail has been charged with unlawful sexual relations for alleged sexual activity with a female inmate there.

Mario J. Godinez allegedly engaged in “consensual sexual intercourse, lewd fondling or touching, or sodomy” with the woman on Jan. 12 of this year, a felony, according to the complaint filed in Douglas County District Court.

At that time, Godinez was a deputy in the corrections division, assigned to the Douglas County Jail, said Sgt. Kristen Channel, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

Godinez is no longer employed by the sheriff’s office, Channel said. She said he resigned in April, after being placed on administrative leave while the matter was under investigation.

“The Sheriff’s Office takes allegations such as these very seriously,” Channel said in her email response to questions from the Journal-World. “Once the Sheriff’s Office was made aware of the allegations against Mario Godinez, he was placed on administrative leave.”

An outside agency, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, was contacted to investigate the allegations to avoid any conflict of interest, Channel said. Once Johnson County’s investigation was complete, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the case and filed the charge.

Exactly how long Godinez was employed by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, including as a deputy, was not immediately available.

However, he was a local law enforcement officer as far back as 2002 and specifically with the sheriff’s office as far back as 2004, according to court filings where he’s named as a law enforcement witness.

The charge against Godinez was filed in late August, according to the complaint. After being ordered to appear in court at a later date, he made his first appearance Wednesday before Judge James George.

Godinez is not in custody.

The judge ordered Godinez to book into the jail before the end of this week, and assigned him a $10,000 own-recognizance bond, meaning he will be released without paying. His next hearing was scheduled for Nov. 21.

At the request of prosecutor C.J. Rieg, the judge ordered Godinez to have no contact with any alleged victim or witnesses.

Godinez did not speak during Wednesday’s hearing. He and his attorney, Phil Stein, declined to make additional comments to a reporter afterward.

Information about where the inmate was when the sex allegedly occurred, what she was in custody for and for how long was not immediately available. According to district court records, she had a 2015 traffic case and a 2017 interference with law enforcement case involving Lawrence police, both misdemeanor charges that were resolved with a plea in October 2017. She was 29 at that time, according to court records.