They were punished for misconduct in state prisons. KY’s juvenile justice agency hired them

He resigned as a guard with the state prison system in the middle of an investigation for taking indecent pictures of himself and sending them to a woman while on duty.

She was fired from her job as a prison guard for failing to report an inmate’s $10,000 bribe offer to smuggle drugs.

Despite leaving the Kentucky Department of Corrections under clouds of controversy, state investigative records show they soon were rehired at a sister agency, the troubled Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, which failed to conduct adequate background checks, state officials acknowledge.

This week, however, the Department of Juvenile Justice fired both employees after the Herald-Leader asked about the decision to rehire them in state government.

The pair were among at least five state prison workers in the past two years who moved to the Department of Juvenile Justice or elsewhere in state government after they were disciplined for wrongdoing at the Department of Corrections, a Herald-Leader analysis of state records obtained through the Kentucky Open Records Act reveals.

The Department of Juvenile Justice has been widely criticized in recent years for the abuse and neglect of youths in its custody, most recently in an independent audit released in January by the state auditor’s office. Juvenile Justice Commissioner Vicki Reed resigned effective Jan. 1, leaving an interim commissioner in charge.

The two employees fired this week were:

▪ Tyler James Beagle, 24, who resigned from the Kentucky Department of Corrections on Jan. 3, 2023, during an internal affairs investigation into the “inappropriate photographs” he took of himself and his penis while on inmate security duty at a Danville hospital, according to state disciplinary records.

Beagle sent five of those photos to a woman, who quickly notified his colleagues.

Because Beagle quit during a misconduct investigation, his resignation was accepted “with prejudice,” which meant he was not eligible to be rehired at the Department of Corrections, according to his personnel records.

But just 20 days later, Beagle was hired as a youth worker at the Department of Juvenile Justice, a sister agency of the Department of Corrections within the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

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Beagle did not disclose his background at the state prisons when he applied for his new job, which he why he was fired on Monday, following the Herald-Leader’s inquiry, cabinet spokeswoman Morgan Hall said.

“Applicants are required to complete job applications honestly and disclose previous employment history,” Hall said. “Otherwise, it is cause for termination.”

However, Hall added, the Department of Juvenile Justice should have called the state personnel office for more information about Beagle when his Social Security number was entered into the system and his previously assigned state personnel number appeared, indicating that he already had worked for state government.

That will be corrected in the future, she said.

“The cabinet’s human resource department is currently retraining all human resources staff at DJJ, from the facility level to central office,” Hall said.

Once he was back on the state payroll, Beagle was assigned to the Adair Regional Youth Detention Center in Columbia. He soon was promoted to correctional sergeant at $43,138 a year — a raise from his previous $37,422 salary as a guard at Northpoint Training Center, a state prison in Boyle County.

But Beagle got into trouble again at his new job.

In May 2023, Beagle was suspended for two days without pay after security video showed him smashing food items off a table and onto the floor outside of youths’ cell doors and dancing while he taunted the youths by shouting “F--k Market!” and “F--k Victory!”, according to state disciplinary records.

Those were references to two Louisville gangs, the Market Street Crips and the Victory Park Crips. The Adair County facility housed teenagers from Louisville.

Beagle did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

▪ Kristie Marie Beagle, 29, who was fired Sept. 14, 2022, as a correctional officer at Northpoint Training Center for failing to report inappropriate comments by an inmate, according to state disciplinary records.

Investigators said security video showed Kristie Beagle walking around the prison for four-and-a-half hours overnight with an unsecured inmate who was not assigned a job at that time.

Kristie Beagle said the inmate told her she was pretty and he wanted to kiss her, and he asked her to smuggle in the drug suboxone in exchange for $10,000. She reported none of this to her superiors because she didn’t want to get the inmate in trouble, investigators wrote in their report.

Two months later, on Nov. 14, 2022, the Department of Juvenile Justice hired her as a youth worker at the Adair Youth Development Center in Columbia.

After the Herald-Leader inquired last week about the state’s decision to rehire her, Kristie Beagle missed five consecutive shifts at work, said Hall, the Justice Cabinet spokeswoman.

In addition to being absent without leave, she did not disclose the Department of Corrections as her previous employer when she applied for her current job, so she was fired effective on Thursday, Hall said.

Kristie Beagle did not respond to a request seeking comment for this story.

The three other former Department of Corrections employees who moved into new state jobs and remained there this week are:

▪ Dervan Dawes, who was suspended without pay for 15 days in March 2023 as a correctional officer at Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, according to state disciplinary records.

For three hours, Dawes abandoned his assigned post providing inmate security in a room at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, and he failed to make most of his assigned hourly phone check-ins during that 12-hour shift, according to state records. Dawes made similar mistakes before, investigators wrote in their report.

In a separate incident, in September 2022, Dawes violated policy by purchasing a six-pack of Smirnoff Ice alcoholic drinks at a Central City gas station while driving a Department of Corrections van carrying himself and colleagues back from a training assignment, internal affairs investigators concluded in their report on the incident.

In interviews with investigators, Dawes and his colleagues confirmed he bought the alcoholic drinks while on a work trip, and he left four of the six remaining bottles in a refrigerator at Blackburn’s Post One, its entry gate. Dawes was called back by superiors more than four hours later to retrieve his drinks because it’s also a violation of policy to bring alcohol onto prison grounds.

“Officer Dawes did purchase alcohol (and) place it in a state vehicle with the intention of consuming the alcohol on the return trip to Blackburn Correctional Complex,” investigators concluded at the end of their report.

But Dawes wasn’t punished for that incident, by order of the warden.

In a handwritten letter dated Oct. 19, 2022, Blackburn Warden Abigail Caudill said internal affairs investigators misunderstood a “joke” Dawes played on his colleagues on the drive back to Lexington. Dawes actually bought energy drinks that day, not alcoholic drinks, and everyone involved misunderstood that, Caudill wrote.

“He said he is misunderstood all the time and he doesn’t always understand things and ‘the way’ here,” she wrote.

Nine months after his 2023 suspension for dereliction of duty, the Department of Juvenile Justice hired Dawes in January as a correctional officer at the Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Lexington.

Dawes did not respond to a request seeking comment for this story.

▪ Patricia “Patti” Allen, who was demoted Dec. 13, 2022, from captain to correctional officer and involuntarily transferred from Kentucky State Penitentiary to Western Kentucky Correctional Complex, both in Lyon County.

Internal affairs investigators said that Allen lied to her superiors and falsified interviews she did not conduct in at least 11 different inmate misconduct investigations for which she was responsible, resulting in discipline against the inmates and a loss of their good-time credits.

The Department of Corrections said it transferred Allen to a different prison because she would be a target for revenge by the inmates she wronged.

Eight months later, on Aug. 16, 2023, Allen was promoted within the Department of Corrections to probation and parole officer, based in Union County, with a $10,000-a-year raise and the responsibility to keep track of felons on supervised release in the community.

“Discipline does not prevent employees from applying for a lateral transfer, promotion or new appointment,” Hall, the Justice Cabinet spokeswoman, said of Allen’s promotion.

During a brief phone conversation with the Herald-Leader, Allen declined to comment for this story.

▪ Jeffrey Brian Dees who resigned while under investigation for misconduct Oct. 19, 2022, as a corrections unit administrator at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Oldham County.

Dees had a flirtatious relationship with an inmate at the prison, and after she was released onto parole, he pursued her romantically through social media, calls, texts, video chats, gifts and favors, such as dismissing a violation for an inmate in the prison at her request, investigators wrote in their report.

The parolee told investigators that Dees tried at least twice to visit her Eastern Kentucky home, making her “feel uncomfortable,” so she avoided him. Dees acknowledged communicating with the parolee, but he denied having physical contact with her, investigators wrote.

Weeks after he resigned from the prison, on Dec. 1, 2022, Dees was hired by the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts, the agency that runs the state’s courts, where he works as a program project coordinator for family and juvenile services in several counties near Louisville.

Statet officials confirmed Dees’ hiring but otherwise declined to comment.

During a brief phone with the Herald-Leader, Dees declined to comment for this story.

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