ALBUQUERQUE – A judge has sentenced a former private prisoner transport officer to two years in prison after sexually assaulting a woman in his custody.
The Albuquerque Journal reported Friday that 51-year-old James Baldinger of Minnesota was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Albuquerque for inappropriately touching a restrained woman without her consent.
Prosecutors said Baldinger was working for Prisoner Transportation Services of America in July 2017 when he touched the woman while taking her from Kentucky to Bernalillo County on an out-of-state warrant.
U.S. Attorney John Anderson said Baldinger “committed a grievous violation of the public trust” by using his law enforcement authority over the woman.
Anderson said the plea shows the U.S. Attorney’s Office will hold people who violate inmates’ rights accountable.
