Oroville >> A former Butte County correctional deputy faces six months in jail after he admitted to exposing and touching his genitals in front of a female inmate, officials said.

Defendant Timothy Hill, 27, of Oroville, pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a 43-year-old inmate at Butte County Jail, according to a press release issued by the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.

Misdemeanor charges of sexual battery and indecent exposure against Hill were dismissed by prosecutors as part of a negotiated plea bargain, according to the release. Hill faces up to six months in jail and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 14 in Butte County Superior Court.

“No one is beneath the protection of the law,” District Attorney Mike Ramsey said in the release. “Inmates are entitled to be as free of sexual harassment as anyone on the outside and the jail takes inmate protection seriously.”

On June 28, 2014, the female inmate was being held in a booking area after being arrested earlier in the day, according to the release. Hill is said to have moved the inmate to a holding cell removed from other individuals, choosing a cell that was directly across a hallway from a small electrical closet.

After the inmate was placed in the cell, Hill entered the closet, and, out of view from a surveillance camera, exposed his genitals and held them, showing them to the inmate, according to the release.

On July 7, 2014, Hill removed the same inmate from her dormitory cell and took her to an attorney-client visitation room, knowing it would be private and unrecorded, according to the release.

The victim said Hill told her she had a visitor, which she found strange because she asked for no visitors, according to the release. The victim said Hill groped her, touching her vaginal area through her jail-issued clothing.

Hill denied touching the victim’s vaginal area, but admitted to “hugging” and rubbing the inmate’s back in a “mutual embrace,” according to the release.

The victim reported the incident to a jail nurse, who then told sheriff’s investigators, according to the release. When investigators confronted Hill on July 17, 2014, he immediately resigned from his job at the jail.

Hill has remained out of custody.