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A prisoner-transport officer was arrested in California on Thursday following allegations that he sexually assaulted female prisoners at gunpoint, including two women during Arizona transports, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.

Eric Scott Kindley, 49, is suspected of handcuffing and restraining female prisoners in three separate incidents, then taking them to a secluded location and sexually assaulting them.

The Justice Department said Kindley allegedly threatened the victims with a firearm and “warned them that he will get away with his conduct because no one will believe them.”

A probable-cause affidavit stated that Kindley bragged to the victims about sexually assaulting other female prisoners in previous transports, according to the Justice Department.

Kindley operates Special Operations Group 6, a company that contracts with local jails throughout the country to transport individuals who have been arrested on out-of-state warrants, according to the Justice Department.

One of the transports involved in the attacks was from California to Arizona, another from Alabama to Arizona and the third was from Mississippi to New Mexico, officials said. 

A federal judge in Sacramento ordered that Kindley be detained over the weekend pending potential transport back to Phoenix.

The case is under investigation by the FBI in Phoenix.

Anyone with additional information is asked to call the Phoenix Division of the FBI at (623) 466-1999, or e-mail the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice at [email protected].

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