Guards Let Inmates Have Sex at Governor's Residence

C O LU M B I A, S.C, Jan. 11 -- Saying he was “mad as hell,” South Carolina's Gov. JimHodges fired the state’s prisons director today after twoguards were charged with allowing inmates to have sex at thegovernor’s residence.

The new charges deepened a prison sex scandal that has alreadyinvolved convicted child killer Susan Smith.

“I’ve lost confidence in the leadership of the agency,” Hodgessaid in firing Corrections Department Director Doug Catoe.

“I am mad as hell, for the sanctity of my home has beenviolated,” he said.

The latest charges involved four minimum-security inmates who worked at the governor's mansion complex and temporary residence, handling maintenance, housecleaning and cooking.

According to an affidavit, guard Freddie Priester, 49, left his post at the temporary residence while inmates Nancy Mulwee and Antoine Frazier had sex.

Priester and co-worker Demont Gilbert, 22, are also accused of failing to report sexual encounters between those prisoners and between inmates Michelle Mathias and Todd Johnson. Gilbert is also charged with advising Mathias to drink bleach when she became pregnant.

A Department Under Fire

The Corrections Department has been under fire since last year, when a guard was accused of having sex with Smith, who is serving a life sentence for drowning her two sons in a lake in 1994. About adozen employees have already been fired.

Neither guard charged Wednesday was accused of having sex with the inmates, and prisoners told investigators they did not use the governor's bedroom or have encounters while the governor's familywas home, said Richland County chief prosecutor Barney Giese.

Corrections Department spokesman John Barkley said he did not know the status of Mathias' pregnancy. He said he was unsure what discipline the inmates might face.

Barkley said women prisoners will no longer be assigned to the governor's home or buildings on the mansion grounds. Johnson, Mulwee and Frazier were serving time for possession ofcrack cocaine, while Mathias was serving five years for arson, hesaid.