KUSA — A jury has convicted the former sheriff of Sedgwick County of transporting an inmate with intellectual disabilities in his personal vehicle, but found him not guilty of sexually assaulting her and threatening her as previously alleged.
This means that 45-year-old Thomas “TJ” Hanna will lose his Colorado peace officer certification, according to a news release from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which was appointed special prosecutor in the case.
Hanna was found not guilty of sexual assault on an at-risk person, second-degree kidnapping and soliciting a prostitute for the August 2016 incident.
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According to an arrest affidavit obtained by 9NEWS, the allegations came to light after a deputy saw Hanna transport the handcuffed inmate in his personal vehicle. Court documents say the deputy later saw Hanna’s pickup parked at his home when he should have been taking the victim to the Logan County Jail.
The woman was in the Sedgwick County Jail on a domestic violence incident. She told investigators that Hanna made her strip down and said “If I say anything, he was going to try and put me in prison.”
The victim also told an investigator with the 13th Judicial District Attorney’s Office that Hanna offered her $60 for sex, according to court documents. She said they never had intercourse, and told the investigator that “when she put her clothes on, he said he did not want to give her $60 bucks for nothing.”
However, in the end Hanna did deposit $20 into her jail account once he transported her to the Logan County Jail. When investigators confronted him about the incident, he admitted to putting the money in the account, “because he has a big heart and wanted to make sure the woman could call her brother….”
The woman told investigators that her brain “is like a kid’s” because she was malnourished when she was young.
When interviewed, the victim asked the investigator if she had been raped. When the investigator told her she had been, court paperwork says the victim became so emotional she vomited.
Hanna was arrested on Aug. 22, 2016. He had been the Sedgwick County sheriff for two years, and served as a deputy before that.
He is slated to be sentenced for his conviction of first-degree official misconduct – a class two misdemeanor – on July 11.
