A 37-year-old former transport employee has been sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a Washington inmate at a Missouri rest stop while driving her to a Minnesota jail.
Rogeric Hankins, 37, drove inmates arrested on out-of-state warrants as part of his job with the now-defunct Inmate Services Corp. of Arkansas.
"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 issued after Hankins was sentenced Tuesday.
The prosecution said Hankins picked up a pretrial inmate from an Olympia, Wash., jail March 31, 2020. Three days later, he stopped the van at a gas station in Joplin, Mo., and brought the victim to the women's bathroom. He then led her into the men's bathroom, ordered her into the stall farthest from the door and raped her.
Before sentencing, prosecutors pushed in a court filing for Hankins to be imprisoned for 10 years.
"There are no words to aptly convey the depravity of [his] conduct and the severe trauma it caused [his victim]," the filing read. "[Hankins] acted with impunity, believing ... he would get away with this violent, predatory conduct."
Defense attorney Ian Lewis argued in a follow-up filing for Hankins to receive a seven-year prison term.
"Mr. Hankins has not only taken responsibility for his offense, he has also demonstrated he is remorseful, and this conduct is not indicative of what his behavior will be hereafter," Lewis wrote, adding that his client has no other felony convictions on his record.
