Former Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center employee charged with sexually assaulting two teenagers at the facility

A former county employee has been charged with sexually assaulting two teenage boys at the troubled Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has charged Svetlana Kuryanova, 33, of Farmington Hills, with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. The charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

“The allegations in this case are among the most disturbing I have ever seen. “It is difficult for me to imagine that this happened in the juvenile detention center and the accused defendant is allegedly responsible for this illegal behavior,” Worthy said in a press release issued Saturday morning.

Kuryanova is in the Wayne County Jail and is expected to be arraigned on Monday. A lawyer for Kuryanova could not immediately be reached Saturday morning. A phone number listed for Kuryanova was disconnected when called Saturday.

The alleged attack on the residents, ages 16 and 17, occurred on April 8 at 7 p.m., according to the press release. The facility is located at the William Dickerson Detention Facility, a vacant adult prison in Hamtramck that the county moved to in fall 2022 to improve security.

District officials noticed “suspicious activity involving a female staff member and two male residents” on the live video feed from the housing units and began an investigation, district spokeswoman Kimberly Harry said. The employee was fired, she said.

“This single bad actor does not represent the values ​​of Wayne County and the hard-working men and women of the juvenile detention center,” Harry said in the statement. “Furthermore, she intentionally circumvented policies, procedures and safety measures put in place to ensure the safety of the youth in our care.”

“Wayne County is committed to ensuring that all bad actors are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

This is the second allegation that an adult sexually abused a juvenile at the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center. In January, a state employee who was on site to monitor operations at the county facility was arrested as part of an investigation into whether she had sexually abused a 15-year-old male resident.

That investigation is ongoing, officials said. Officers did not identify the woman or provide any information about the alleged incident. State officials said at the time that the employee had been suspended without pay pending an investigation.

Following this arrest, Evans removed all government monitors. The state deployed the 24-hour monitors in March 2023 after allegations that a 12-year-old boy was sexually abused by other youth at the facility.

Since summer 2022, the Free Press has been reporting on overcrowding and a lack of staff in the facility, which critics describe as inhumane and dangerous.

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans touted “significant progress” in improving the county’s troubled juvenile detention center in his state of the state address in March, saying the facility is now a “safer and more nurturing environment.”

Contact Christine MacDonald: [email protected] or 313-418-2149. Follow her on X: @cmacfreep.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former Wayne Co. Juvenile Detention Center employee charged with sexual assault of teen