BANGOR – A former kitchen worker at the Penobscot County Jail has been charged with having sex with a younger male inmate she was supervising.

Dawn L. Chambers, 44, of Bangor was indicted Monday by the Penobscot County grand jury on two counts of gross sexual assault.

She allegedly had oral sex with the 27-year-old inmate on Jan. 30 and Feb. 2.

Chambers is scheduled to be arraigned on March 31 in Penobscot County Superior Court. If convicted, she could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison.

“She had supervisory authority over the inmate, but, otherwise, there is no evidence of coercion,” Greg Campbell, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, said Monday afternoon.

She was not a corrections officer but a civilian employee, according to Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross.

“This was a shocker to us,” Ross said.

Hired on Oct. 12, 2004, Chambers had been employed at the jail as a part-time cook in the kitchen until she was fired on Feb. 6, two days after authorities learned of the incidents, Ross said Monday.

Chambers underwent an extensive background check and a polygraph test, required off all jail employees, before she was hired, the sheriff said.

She was convicted 10 years ago of the misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen property, Campbell said Monday. She paid a $125 fine.

Although Ross said the inmate didn’t lodge a complaint, an investigation was launched after rumors about the incidents circulated in the jail. A detective was assigned to investigate what happened, and the information was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office.

The inmate involved in the incidents also was disciplined for violating jail policies and he lost his trusty status.

Ross said he goes to the kitchen each day and that the inmate could have come forward to him or others with a complaint.

Such incidents don’t happen often, Ross said Monday, but, when they do, jail officials take them seriously.