BANGOR – A 37-year-old nurse working at the Penobscot County Jail has been terminated from the facility after an investigation into allegations that he sexually assaulted a female inmate last December.

Joseph Bragg of Orrington was fired from the facility last week after several months of investigation, according to Penobscot Sheriff Glenn Ross.

The Sheriff’s Department’s investigation into the matter included lie detector tests performed on both Bragg and the inmate, Lori Brogan, 34, of Bangor.

The Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office has not filed criminal charges against Bragg.

Bragg was not an employee of the county, Ross said, but was an employee with Allied Resources for Correctional Health, which contracts with jails across the state to provide medical professionals within the correctional facilities.

Ross said Bragg had worked at PCJ as a nurse for about a year. Though he would not be specific, Ross said there had been other “issues” with Bragg that contributed to the termination.

Al Cichon, president of ARCH, declined to comment on the matter, but referred calls to ARCH’s attorney, Douglas Jennings of Augusta, who was not available to comment. Bragg did not return a call made to his residence.

Brogan said she passed the lie detector test. She said that while no one witnessed the assault itself, other inmates as well as jail guards saw her immediately afterward.

Though the alleged assault occurred in December, while Brogan was serving a nine-month sentence for habitual driving law offenses, Ross said the investigation took months because of some unavoidable delays with the polygraph tests and the thoroughness of the investigation.

Bragg continued to work at the jail until the investigation was complete, Ross said.

“Inmates make allegations all of the time, and if we terminated or suspended every employee that inmates made allegations about, then the inmates would be running the jail,” Ross said. “We did a thorough investigation and we took the appropriate action.”

The alleged assault occurred when Brogan was escorted by a guard to the medical office back in December.

“They came and got me and said that he [Bragg] wanted to see me down at medical. I asked why, but they didn’t know. It was clear when I got there that there was really no reason for me to be there. He was asking about things that were already taken care of and I couldn’t figure out what I was doing there,” she said.

She said Bragg kept rubbing her leg and eventually pulled at her pants and made sexual contact with her. Guards were not present at the time, she said.

She said she ran out of the room and told her cellmate, but didn’t report it immediately because she thought no one would believe her. When she was again summoned to the medical unit a few days later, she insisted a female guard accompany her, she said.

The presence of the female guard seemed to fluster Bragg, Brogan said, but she said he grabbed her shoulders when the guard was called out of the room for a moment.

She said she ran out of the room again and eventually reported the incidents. Brogan was transferred to the Kennebec County Jail so that she would not have further contact with Bragg. She said that was difficult as it placed her farther away from visiting friends and family.

Ross defended the transfer, saying it was important to keep Brogan away from Bragg, but noting the importance of conducting the investigation.

The Sheriff’s Department referred the case to the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office, but Ross said that office did not file charges against Bragg. Brogan said she was told that the office did not have enough evidence to file criminal charges.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts would not comment on the case this week.

Meanwhile, Brogan said she is in therapy for the emotional effects of the assault and has spoken to an attorney regarding a possible civil rights suit.

Ross said his department was responsible for completing criminal background checks on anyone who works inside the jail, but that any additional background checks, such as employment history, would be completed by ARCH.

“ARCH was his employer and that would be their responsibility. Just like when we take an inmate to the hospital, we count on the hospital to have professional staff on board. We don’t do employee history checks on them,” Ross said.