Ex-prisoner transporter sentenced for raping detainee

JOPLIN, Mo. -- A man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a Washington detainee at a Missouri rest stop while transporting her to a Minnesota jail, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

The department said Rogeric Hankins, 37, transported inmates who were arrested on out-of-state warrants as part of his job as a private prisoner transporter at Inmate Services Corp.

Prosecutors said Hankins picked up a pretrial detainee from an Olympia, Washington, jail in March 2020 to take her to St. Paul, Minnesota. On the way, he stopped at a Joplin rest stop where prosecutors said he forced the detainee into a bathroom stall and raped her.

Hankins' public defenders did not immediately respond to email and phone requests for comment Tuesday.

"The defendant sexually abused and violently assaulted a woman in his custody, exploiting his authority and depriving this survivor of her constitutional right to bodily integrity," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement.