Inmate crawls past prison guards during attempted attack in Maricopa County

PHOENIX (AZFamily) – A man already accused of a series of sexual assaults is accused of attempting to rape a woman while in the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO).

Justin Avery was arrested on April 11 for allegedly attacking five women near ASU's Tempe campus.

Just days later, a shocking jail video emerged showing Avery sneaking past an MCSO detention officer and then grabbing a woman sleeping on the floor while waiting to appear before a judge.

It happened at the Intake Transfer and Processing Facility in Phoenix.

Sheriff's officials said Avery crawled on the ground before groping the woman and pulling down her pants.

Court documents state that a woman sitting nearby began yelling at him and telling him to get off the victim.

The video shows him gesturing for her to be quiet. At this point, the officer intervenes.

“What we're seeing here is a failure of officers to do their jobs properly with the technology available to them,” said Stan Kephart, a former Arizona police chief.

Court documents show that Avery later admitted to investigators that he “sneaked up like a spider” and intended to rape the victim.

Kephart said the incident was cause for concern and indicated a serious system flaw.

“He's a sex offender. That's what he does. Knowing that, you have to be extra careful of him under these circumstances,” Kephart said.

A sheriff’s office spokesman issued the following statement regarding the attempted attack:

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the sheriff's employee as a deputy. The story has been updated to correctly refer to the employee as a detention officer.

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