Former corrections officers who facilitated inmate fight will serve jail time

Published 3:00 pm Monday, July 31, 2017

Former corrections officers have been sentenced to jail time after allowing two inmates to attack another and then attempting to cover it up at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison unit more than two years ago.

On April 29, 2015, two inmates, one who was in an isolated area, got into an argument in the high-security recreational yard at the W.J. Estelle Unit prison in Huntsville, Texas, according to an investigation conducted by the Texas Office of the Inspector General. 

Then-corrections officers Alexandra Catrina Kennedy and Joe Lenn Harrison Jr. agreed to let the inmates fight, and Kennedy opened the isolated area to let one of the inmates out. 

During the ensuing fight, Kennedy also allowed a third inmate to join in and two inmates teamed together to beat the other.

Kennedy then cleaned up the blood in the recreational yard to prevent other Estelle Unit staff from finding out about the attack.

Kennedy and Harrison later confessed to the crimes.

Texas District Court Judge Don Kraemer sentenced Kennedy to 180 days in jail plus seven years probation last Wednesday for her part in the incident. She pleaded guilty to official oppression, a class A misdemeanor, and tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony. Kennedy must also pay a $1,000 fine and serve 100 hours of community service.

If Kennedy violates her probation, she faces a four-year sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — where she once worked.

Harrison also pleaded guilty to official oppression and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. A charge of tampering with evidence against him was dismissed.

Stark writes for the Huntsville, Texas Item.