Inmate crawls past Maricopa County jail officer in assault attempt

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A man already facing charges for a string of sexual assaults is accused of attempting to rape a woman while in custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO).

Justin Avery was arrested on April 11 for reportedly assaulting five women near ASU’s Tempe campus.

Just days later, while waiting to see a judge, a shocking jail video appears to show Avery sneaking past an MCSO detention officer before grabbing a woman sleeping on the ground.

It happened at the Intake Transfer and Processing Facility in Phoenix.

Sheriff’s officials said Avery crawled on the ground before grabbing the woman and pulling down her pants.

Court paperwork reveals a woman sitting nearby started screaming for him to get off the victim.

The video shows him gesturing for her to be quiet. That is when the officer intervenes.

“What we have here is a failure on the part of the deputies to do their job properly using the technology they have,” said Stan Kephart, a former Arizona police chief.

Court documents show Avery later admitted to detectives he “snuck over like a spider” and intended to rape the victim.

Kephart said the incident is concerning and highlights a major system failure.

“He is a sexual assaulter. That is what he does. Knowing that, he should bare special watching under these conditions,” said Kephart.

A sheriff’s office spokesperson released this statement regarding the attempted attack:

correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the Sheriff’s employee as a deputy. The story has been updated to the correct title of detention officer.

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