York SC sheriff wanted prison for ex-jailer’s sex with inmate. It didn’t happen.
Despite the York County Sheriff’s Office asking a judge to send one of their former employees to prison for tarnishing the badge by having sex with an inmate, a judge accepted a plea deal for probation.
Benjamin Adam Skidell, 36, pleaded guilty Thursday in York County Criminal Court to second-degree assault and battery and misconduct in office. South Carolina state police arrested Skidell in 2022 for jail sex with a female inmate that happened two years earlier in 2020.
A negotiated plea agreement between Skidell and prosecutors from Spartanburg County who handled the case was for two years probation for both charges. The deal included four years of prison time that was suspended if he remains on good behavior.
Visiting Judge Keith Kelly from Spartanburg heard all sides then accepted the plea deal. Judges have the right to accept or reject plea deals.
But Kelly said these last words for Skidell at the end of court: “Sir, if you violate that probation, you and I will see each other again.”
Sheriff’s office wanted active prison sentence
Detention officers guard inmates and have control over their actions while incarcerated. York County can house as many as 500-plus inmates waiting for trial at any time. The county sheriff operates the jail.
Jail Administrator John Hicks, the top jail official who works directly for Sheriff Tony Breeden, asked Kelly on behalf of the sheriff’s office to give Skidell an active prison sentence even though a deal had been worked out. Officers are told from the first day of employment and during training sex with an inmate is both against the rules and illegal.
Hicks said the sheriff’s office does not want the public to believe they would “brush things under the rug.”
“An inmate cannot give consent,” Hicks said. “Every officer who puts that badge on knows you cannot have sexual contact with an inmate ... When we put that badge on our chest, that means something.”
Hicks said Skidell was forthcoming about what happened only after he had made a “calculated” decision to have sex with the inmate “multiple times.”
“The general public I think, if you went out to the lobby and you asked every single one of them, if you should get probation or a sentence, every single one would say ‘Yes they should get a sentence.’ “ Hicks told Judge Kelly. “To me an active sentence says that ... It also tells the public we are going to hold our officers to that higher standard.”
Probation versus jail time
On July 8, another former detention officer, Jerome Alfonzo Taylor, 46, received 90 days jail time plus probation after pleading guilty to the same charges involving the same inmate. A different judge accepted that plea deal.
Grace Kerley, the Spartanburg prosecutor assigned both cases to avoid a conflict with York County prosecutors who know local jailers, told Kelly that Skidell’s actions were not alleged to be coercive — unlike the case involving the other defendant who pleaded guilty, Kerley said.
She said she spoke to the victim, who did not oppose a probation-only sentence for Skidell.
The Herald does not identify victims of sexual crimes.
Skidell’s lawyer, Creighton Hayes, urged Kelly to accept the plea deal because it is the appropriate punishment also agreed to by the victim. Skidell has never been in trouble before or since, Hayes said.
Skidell “sought company with people that he shouldn’t have,” Hayes said in court. “As a corrections officer, he had no business forming this type of friendship with an inmate. That’s what it ultimately was, a friendship, and it led to a sexual nature. He admits what he did was wrong.”
Skidell apologizes
Skidell apologized for what he did during his seven months employed at the jail. The Moss Justice Center courtroom where he admitted his crimes is two floors above where Skidell once worked guarding prisoners.
“My actions back then — I cannot be more — they were wrong and rude and inconsiderate,” Skidell told the judge. “I thought about myself.”
He said the job was not a “good fit” for for him.
“Ever since this happened, I have lived every day in regret,” Skidell said. “I messed up my future, my reputation, and if I could change anything I would.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2025 at 2:27 PM.
