Two female inmates in the Duchesne County jail are facing sexual assault charges, accused of forcing fellow inmates to strip down and be searched for allegedly stolen sugar packets.
The two women, 29-year-old Zhondee Spring Nephi and 21-year-old Letha Ilene Beston, were charged this week with two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. Nephi was also charged with assaulting a prisoner, a third-degree felony.
(Courtesy) Letha Ilene Beston
One of the alleged victims reported to jail officials on Oct. 29 that she and another inmate were forced into the shower and then were stripped of their clothes, according to charges. Beston forced them to strip, the inmate said, on behalf of Nephi, who believed the two alleged victims had stolen sugar packets from her commissary order.
One of the targeted inmates was forced into a second search after not showing her “women parts” well enough, an officer wrote in a probable cause statement filed in court.
And after the search, Nephi allegedly grabbed one woman by the neck and punched her in the face, charges state.
One of the inmates who was allegedly assaulted told authorities that the strip search was “cruelty,” and that she believed the other inmates made up the story of stolen sugar to belittle them and make them “feel smaller.”
Following the report, jail staff reviewed surveillance video, which confirmed the women’s story. The two assailants also admitted to the assault during a subsequent interview, according to charges.
Both Nephi and Beston had been in the jail for alleged crimes that occurred on tribal land, according to the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office. Nephi is accused in an Aug. 23 homicide, while Beston was arrested on a weapons charge.
Initial court dates have not yet been set.
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