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CRIME Fourth Kairos employee arrested in Grants Pass Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Apr. 30, 2015 at 4:49 PM Updated Apr 30, 2015 at 5:04 PM Posted Apr. 30, 2015 at 4:49 PM Updated Apr 30, 2015 at 5:04 PM » Social News Local report A fourth employee of Kairos, a youth-treatment facility in Grants Pass, was arrested this morning on multiple felony charges stemming from alleged sexual relations with a resident, the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety reported. According to a DPS news release, a Josephine County grand jury Tuesday secretly indicted Jessica A.M. Morton, 30, on charges of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct, three counts of second-degree sexual custodial misconduct and two counts of third-degree sexual abuse. DPS detectives arrested her around 10:39 a.m. today in the 1300 block of Southwest G Street in Grants Pass. The Grants Pass Daily Courier reported today that Morton is the fourth employee of the mental health treatment provider to be charged with such crimes since May 2014. Police said investigators learned in May that Morton allegedly had a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old resident of the Kairos Three Bridges facility, where he had been conditionally placed by the Oregon Youth Authority. Because the boy had been in the custody of the state while at the facility, police said, Morton is alleged to have committed both first- and second-degree custodial misconduct. Police said Morton was lodged in the Josephine County Jail, although the jail's log did not list her in custody Thursday afternoon. Kairos, which also operates a facility and other programs in Jackson County, is already under investigation by two state agencies following the earlier arrests. The Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority, which have regulatory oversight of Kairos, are looking into the allegations, according to a representative of OHA. Dewayne Sandle-Carnell, 31, and Sonia Leamons, 40, both of Grants Pass, were arrested in mid-April, then rearrested on more charges last week. The charges stem from allegations Sandle-Carnell had sex multiple times with a 17-year-old girl in Kairos' New Beginnings residential treatment facility on Nebraska Avenue near Three Rivers Medical Center. Leamons is alleged to have encouraged the abuse by sending sexually explicit photos of the girl to Sandle-Carnell. The teen was living at the facility for treatment because she had been raped and was dealing with trauma from that incident, according to the family's Bend attorney, Tim Williams. The two employees were placed on administrative leave by Kairos when the allegations surfaced, and were fired upon their arrests. They are currently out on bail. A third former Kairos employee, Jason Tesorero Morla, 34, was indicted last May on charges of first- and second-degree custodial sexual misconduct alleging he abused a youth who was in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority, but living at a Kairos facility. That abuse allegedly occurred in July 2013. Kairos was founded in 1977 as the Southern Oregon Adolescent Study and Treatment Center (SOASTC), changing its name to Kairos — which the organization says is Greek for "The moment when change is possible" — in 2012. The nonprofit started out in the Merlin area, helping about 15 severely traumatized boys annually. In 2014 Kairos reported serving about 200 youths of both genders at facilities in Grants Pass, Merlin, Medford, North Bend, Eugene and Salem. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Apr. 30, 2015 at 4:49 PM Updated Apr 30, 2015 at 5:04 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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