With help from a Little Rock attorney quoting a Shakespearean play, a former correctional officer at the federal prison in Forrest City evaded a prison sentence Thursday for having sex with an inmate she oversaw.
"She fell completely and madly in love," attorney George "Birc" Morledge wrote in a sentencing memo to explain why Lakeisha Brown, who turned 39 this week, was willing to risk a felony conviction to have intimate relations with a prisoner, Markavious Anderson.
Brown was 10 years old when her father died from AIDS, and she used Social Security checks she received as a result of his death to put herself through college at Florida State University, earning a degree in criminal justice, Morledge said. He said that during college, she worked in a grocery store delicatessen to support herself and took out loans to offset the cost of attending college.
Her focus on hard work paid off when she became the first person on either side of her family to graduate from college, Morledge said, but she never had a serious boyfriend, got married or had children.
Then, about six months after starting work as a prison guard, she met Anderson, who was serving a 12-year sentence for a robbery conviction in Tennessee. She was one of the guards who supervised the common area where prisoners interacted outside their cells.
"She thought he was cute, but she had to keep her distance," Morledge said after court. Then once, as they were talking, "he reached out and held her hands, and she could feel his sweaty palms and knew he was nervous. She knew he actually liked her."
Gradually, he said, romance blossomed inside the prison walls.
"This is just a boy and a girl who fell in love," Morledge said.
Eventually, Brown was fired from her job and charged with abusive sexual contact, a felony, for having intimate relations with an inmate inside the prison. In May, she admitted in court that she'd had sex with Anderson twice -- once in September 2017 and once in February 2018.
At her sentencing Thursday before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., Morledge said Brown, who now lives in Memphis, and Anderson plan to get married when he is released from prison. His projected release date is June 29, 2023.
Morledge provided the judge with an Aug. 31, 2018, memo from a unit manager at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Forrest City seeking permission for Anderson to marry Brown. The manager noted that "there is no evidence supporting their relationship," and the warden denied the request, citing a recommendation from the unit team.
Morledge argued that even though federal sentencing guidelines recommended a prison sentence of between 10 and 16 months for Brown, that's because the crime usually involves a male guard taking advantage of a confined female, which didn't fit the mutual-consent case at hand.
He provided the judge with a letter from one of Anderson's relatives referring to Brown as "a member of the family," and requested a downward variance from the recommended penalty, noting that as a result of the charge, Brown has lost her job and has had to withdraw money from savings to live. She has also had to register as a sex offender and was hospitalized for five days for suicidal thoughts.
"She'll never be able to work in her chosen field again," Morledge said. "This felony will follow her the rest of her life."
"Love makes you do crazy things," Morledge said. "We don't always use our best thinking when we are in love."
In his sentencing memo, Morledge wrote, "All these things have befallen her because she loves a man and made poor decisions. Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, 'Love is blind, and lovers cannot see, the pretty follies that themselves commit.'"
Federal prosecutors didn't recommend any particular sentence, deferring to the court's discretion.
Marshall, noting that he enjoyed the Shakespearean reference, agreed that "no useful purpose would be served by a prison sentence in these circumstances."
He said a crime was definitely committed because "the integrity of the institutions requires a separation of guards and prisoners, because the guards are in a position of trust."
But, he said, "notwithstanding the odd location, I feel Ms. Brown and the inmate fell in love. Should they have put their feelings on hold or at least not acted on them? Yes. But .... love is indeed blind and does cause us to make poor decisions. That's one of the things that makes us human beings."
He sentenced a tearful Brown to three years of probation with 150 hours of community service work and imposed a $1,000 fine.
While probationers are prohibited from associating with convicted felons without permission, Marshall told Brown that he believes the federal probation office will make an exception for Anderson.
"If not, you should come see me," he said.
Metro on 10/11/2019