SCI-Fayette worker charged with having sex with inmate
A state Department of Corrections employee at the State Correctional Institution at Fayette was charged with having sex with an inmate at the lockup.
According to state police, Natalie Ketchem, a food service instructor at the Luzerne Township facility, became friends with the male inmate, and that friendship progressed into kissing and touching.
Beginning in June 2015, Ketchem said, she met with the inmate in the dry storage area, and approximately 20 times, they would touch each other’s genitals and perform sex acts, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
The Herald-Standard doesn’t publish the names of those who are alleged victims of sexual assault.
The staff at the prison said they the two were recorded on security footage, according to the criminal complaint.
Ketchem, who turns 39 Sunday, faces three felony counts of institutional sexual assault.
Rhonda House, assistant to the superintendent at the LaBelle prison, said Ketchem, of Waynesburg, has worked at the facility since January 2007. Ketchem is currently suspended while the allegations are being investigated, House said.
Ketchem’s job included working in the kitchen, where she instructed and observed inmates preparing and serving food, according to House. While she received the same amount of inmate contact training as a corrections officer, House said Ketchem’s job was different.
The charges were filed Thursday by state police, and she was arraigned late in the evening and released on a $25,000 unsecured bond.
Ketchem appeared at her arraignment late Thursday still wearing her SCI-Fayette uniform.