A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department custody assistant pleaded no contest to committing sex crimes against an inmate in a Lancaster jail cell in 2019.
The district attorney announced the plea Friday and said that prosecutors will push for a maximum eight-year sentencing for the alleged attack.
“What happened to the victim in this case is unconscionable, and our office will not tolerate such egregious abuses of authority,” Dist. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement. “A member of law enforcement who commits sex crimes against an inmate in their custody deserves to be imprisoned. Our prosecutors will vigorously argue for the maximum sentence in state prison.”
The woman who Daniel Everts, now 30, allegedly assaulted filed a federal lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles County in 2019. The case settled for $950,000 two years later.
In her suit, the woman said she was booked into the Lancaster station jail in June 2019 for driving under the influence, and claimed that Everts assaulted her after she asked for a blanket.
Everts warned her that she “could do more time in custody and remain in custody if she did not comply” with his demands, the suit alleges, before he entered her jail cell, lowered his pants and forced her to perform oral sex.
The woman was released the next day and Everts was arrested days later before his release on $100,000 bail.
Everts was charged with three felonies for forcible oral copulation, oral copulation under threat of arrest and sexual activity with a detained inmate. He originally pleaded not guilty, but this month entered an open plea of no contest to all counts.
The case was investigated by the Sheriff’s Department. Sentencing is scheduled for July 7.
