LOS ANGELES—A former guard at the federal lockup in downtown Los Angeles was sentenced March 20 to 10 years behind bars for raping an inmate who was being held in an isolation cell while recovering from COVID-19.
Jose Viera, 49, of Monterey Park, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II, who ordered Viera immediately remanded into custody. Wright also scheduled a June 20 restitution hearing in the case.
He pleaded guilty last May to a single federal count of deprivation of rights under color of law, resulting in bodily injury.
Viera was a corrections officer assigned to the Metropolitan Detention Center-Los Angeles on Dec. 20, 2020, when he entered an isolation cell where the female inmate identified by the initials J.P. was being housed….