Prison intern Kayla Danielle Davis charged with sexual assault

An Elizabethtown woman working on a degree in criminal justice now faces a felony charge of institutional sex assault, according to police.

Kayla Danielle Davis, 22, of 332 Holly St., was inteing at the York Community Corrections Center in York from Aug. 9 through Oct. 13 to fulfill credits toward a college degree at York Technical Institute, Columbia Borough police said in a criminal complaint.

During the inteship, Davis allegedly had a sexual relationship with an inmate, 29-year-old Kenneth Irwin Kunkle, police said. He is serving a 5- to 10-year state prison sentence for drugs.

The inte and the inmate went to a home in the 200 block of South 3rd Street in Columbia several times, police said. They had sexual intercourse there twice during the first two weeks of October.

"He was able to get weekend release passes, and that's when this occurred," police Chief Joseph Greenya said Friday.

Details of the rendezvous were later revealed in numerous handwritten love letters found by Davis' husband in their home, police said. He tued the letters over to authorities.

That spurred an investigation by the state Department of Corrections, police said. A search of Kunkle's property tued up an additional 23 love letters written between the inte and the inmate.

Davis in August completed orientation training with the York Community Corrections Center regarding ethics and her responsibilities of being a volunteer with the York County Prison, police said. She acknowledged that she would abide by the rules, which prohibit sexual contact with an inmate.

The Lancaster County District Attoey's office notified Columbia Borough police about the matter early in January.

Police filed the charge against Davis before District Judge Robert A. Herman Jr. on Tuesday.

Davis  was arraigned and released on Thursday, a spokeswoman at Herman's office said.