YOUNGSTOWN — Damon K. Perry, 52, of Youngstown, a former Mahoning County Sheriff’s deputy, was sentenced Thursday to nine years and four months in federal prison after pleading guilty in May to two counts of sexual abuse of a federal detainee and two counts of sexual abuse for engaging in sexual conduct with a jail inmate in November 2023 while he was on duty.

Judge Donald C. Nugent handed down the sentence in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Perry also will spend five years on supervised release after serving his prison sentence and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. He was allowed to surrender to begin his sentence at a later time, according to court documents.

Perry engaged in sexual conduct with an inmate Nov. 9, 2023, and Nov. 30, 2023, according to Perry’s indictment. Perry was at work as a housing deputy in the Mahoning County jail at the time of each offense.

The charges are federal because the facility houses federal inmates under a contract with a federal agency, according to Perry’s indictment. The jail houses inmates under a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service, in addition to housing inmates arrested on local charges. The inmate was a federal detainee, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.

Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene clarified in December that housing deputies are responsible for supervising inmates who are in the jail under federal detention or under detention for local charges. The federal and local detainees are not housed in separate areas.

“Once we became aware that there was an allegation of this misconduct, our office started an investigation into these allegations. He immediately resigned when we started the investigation,” Greene said.

Shortly after the sheriff’s office started its investigation, the federal Inspector General’s Office decided to take the case federally, “so we handed the investigation off to them,” Greene said.

Perry was hired as a deputy Oct. 14, 2008, and resigned Dec. 21, 2023.