L.A. Sheriff’s employee is charged with sexual misconduct with detainees

A custody assistant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been charged with engaging in sexual activity with two detainees being held at a women’s jail in Lynwood, prosecutors said.

Roy’ce Bass, 29, surrendered to investigators Tuesday after an investigation by the Sheriff Department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau. Bass, who worked at the Century Regional Detention Facility, was released after posting $100,000 bail.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Wednesday that Bass was charged with four counts of having sex with an adult confined in a detention facility. Two of the charges are linked to a July 2017 encounter in an inmate’s cell, and the other two are tied to a January 2018 incident with a second inmate, according to the district attorney’s office and the criminal complaint.

If convicted, Bass faces up to five years in state prison.

He is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 13.

“The Sheriff’s Department finds these allegations deeply troubling,” the sheriff’s officials said in a news release. “We are committed to transparency and holding our employees fully accountable.”