By: Associated Press//June 24, 2015//
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A former Dane County deputy has been found guilty of sexual assault for his relationship with a woman who was in sheriff’s custody, but at home on electronic monitoring.
Forty-three-year-old Jeffrey Hilgers was convicted by a jury Tuesday. The Wisconsin State Journal reports he’ll be sentenced within a few weeks.
Hilgers was a deputy when he began a relationship with the woman in 2013. Deputy District Attorney Michelle Viste told jurors that even though the woman was at home as part of a drug and alcohol treatment program, state law forbids sexual contact between jailers and inmates.
Hilgers was not the woman’s supervisor at the time. His attorney, Brian Hough, says the woman wasn’t barred from leaving her apartment and had more freedom than a jail inmate.