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June 20, 2008

Inmate, visitor charged in lewd molestation

Incident reportedly took place at Lexington prison

By Tom Blakey

A man serving life in prison for lewd molestation is accused of molesting an 8-year-old girl in the visiting room of Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington.

Eugene Watson Bond, 42, was charged Thursday in Cleveland County District Court with lewd acts with a child.

Bond's wife, who brought along her daughter to visit Bond, was charged with enabling child abuse.

Rebecca Dawn Bond, 40, Oklahoma City, was arraigned Friday and released on personal recognizance bond. Her child has been placed in custody of the Department of Human Services.

Mr. Bond is to be arraigned Monday, said court officials.

According to prison officials, Bond was in the visiting room with the young girl sitting in his lap. Another couple visiting together reported seeing Bond rubbing the girl inappropriately. The act was taped by cameras monitoring the visiting room, officials said.

The mother said she'd taken her daughter to visit Bond on numerous occasions in the past year. She admitted having seen Bond become sexually aroused with the child in his lap on previous visits, officials said.

Mr. Bond has a 1988 conviction from Tennessee for molesting a 6-year-old girl, officials said. He was convicted April 17, 1996, in Oklahoma County of second-degree rape by instrumentation, after former conviction of a felony, and placed on 10 years probation. He was convicted Oct. 30, 2003, in Grady County of two counts of lewd acts with a child, after former conviction of a felony, and given a life sentence.

Bond was moved from Joseph Harp Correctional Center to Lexington Correctional Center the day of the incident for his own safety, prison officials said. The medium-security prisons in Lexington are a mile apart.

On weekend visiting days, there typically are up to 300 people in a medium-prison visiting room and one correctional officer assigned to supervise the room, said Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie.

This is the first time charges have been filed over an alleged child molestation incident at a state facility, Massie said. The DOC is surveying prisons that house sex offenders to see how those visits are supervised and reviewing its visitation policies, he said.

Tom Blakey 366-3540 tblakey@normantranscript.com

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