Man accused of raping female inmate while being booked into Oklahoma County jail

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Police have issued an arrest warrant for a man accused of raping a handcuffed woman while both were being booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center.

It’s the latest in a string of incidents that have led to ongoing protests about conditions at the jail.

Despite being caught on surveillance cameras, the suspect in the case is not in jail.

“I don’t want to ever make light of a situation, but this is the latest terrible thing there,” Sean Cummings said.

In July, surveillance cameras in the intake area of the Oklahoma County Detention Center documented an encounter between 44-year-old Donta Thomas and a female inmate. An arrest affidavit states that Thomas walked away from detention officers and walked around the corner to where a female inmate was handcuffed.

“Why was she unattended? Why was the male unattended? Why was he not in shackles?” Cummings said.

After talking to the woman for about 30 minutes, the video shows Thomas taking down the woman’s pants and having sex with her against her will. He stopped after a detention officer spotted him and was then placed in handcuffs.

District Attorney David Prater said Friday that “this is yet another example of the Jail Trust’s complete disregard for those they are responsible for protecting.”

“They had this video for a couple of months. They knew they had it. They knew what happened and did nothing,” Cummings said.

Greg Williams, CEO of the Oklahoma County Detention Center, said in a statement that “we deeply regret the harm that was suffered in this situation. We used it as an opportunity to evaluate and update our operations as well as to remind our staff of the critical importance of following procedures at all times. We also have an ongoing internal investigation on the actions of the detention officer during this incident.”

Authorities will serve the first-degree rape arrest warrant for Thomas.

“Everyone says, ‘Well, that’s about training.’ And we look at the video and see what we can do better,” Cummings said. “This isn’t the NFL. These people’s lives that we have taken custody of.”