Jail guard fired after romance, and baby, with inmate

Kelly and Washburn If you believe her employment file, Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office corrections deputy Perla Kelly was no model worker as of late. She was disciplined or reprimanded four times last year, and was under Internal Affairs investigation. But even she may have gone overboard when she was wooed by an inmate she guarded at the county slammer in West Palm Beach — and got pregnant. In time, the 17-year PBSO veteran married the dude, Victor Washburn , who was arrested at least 12 times in South Florida over the past decade, according to records. Still, Kelly, 40, got canned two weeks ago, a month before the baby’s arrival. “She was terminated for abandoning her post,”  said Col. Mike Gauger , PBSO’s chief of operations. “She had a lot of unexcused absences from work and then didn’t show up for three days in a row.” For more, including Washburn’s exclusive interview, look below or click Washburn According to PBSO records, Kelly was reprimanded for failing to show up for work on 24 days in the fall, and 23 days in the spring. But Internal Affairs sleuths, I’m told, were also investigating whether she became pregnant while Washburn was being held at the Gun Club Road jail. That probe ended when she was fired. Corrections deputies are banned from fraternizing with inmates. Yet, records show that Washburn moved in with Kelly on the day he was released from jail,

June 17, 2009, after serving for nine months for a larceny conviction. “The I.A. guys have been counting the days to see if she was made pregnant in jail,” a PBSO insider said. “She claims it didn’t happen behind bars. But now she’s gone anyway.” Washburn told Page2Live that I.A. can count, and recount, but there’s nothing there. “I knew her 10 years ago and we ran into each other again in jail,” Washburn said. “There was nothing going on until after I got out. We just said hi when passing in the hallways and just talked. “One day, she told me to call her after I got out. I did. But she couldn’t have gotten pregnant while I was in jail. She’s due in three weeks.” Washburn, meanwhile, has an interesting background. Among several jail sentences, he was sent away for six months in 2003 for an attempted robbery in Fort Lauderdale, and using a false name. He served another nine months in 2006 for domestic violence. He also has been arrested for possession of cocaine, grand theft and battery on a police officer, among other incidents. Said Washburn: “They fired her for not following procedures. Of course she couldn’t make it to work. She’s having a high-risk pregnancy. But if you want to talk about procedures, every guard there breaks them.”

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Jail guard fired after romance, and baby, with inmate

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