Transport Driver Convicted Of Sexually Assaulting Inmates Sentenced To Life In Prison

A former prison transport driver has been sentenced in Arkansas after being convicted last year of sexually assaulting two women he was responsible for transporting.

Eric Scott Kindley, 53, was sentenced to life plus five years in prison by a federal judge in Little Rock, Arkansas, Thursday for the assaults and knowingly possessing a firearm to further a violent crime, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

He was also ordered to pay a total of $20,275 in restitution to the two victims for mental health treatment and counseling for trauma.

Kindley was found guilty in March 2020 of sexually assaulting the two female inmates in 2014 and 2017 while transporting them between lockups on warrants.

Kindley operated his own private prisoner transport company that contracted with local jails throughout the country to transport individuals who were arrested on out-of-state warrants.

Four other alleged victims of Kindley testified against him during his trial. All six women, including the two victims involved in his indictment, testified that Kindley transported them alone, sometimes for hundreds of miles.

Kindley threatened to kill the women, who were all handcuffed and shackled, and made sexually explicit comments, the victims said.

One of the women listed in the indictment testified that Kindley sexually assaulted her in a deserted area near Little Rock while she was handcuffed when he was transporting her from Alabama to Arizona in 2017. She said he threatened her with a firearm and reminded her that she was “an inmate in transport” and that no one would believe her if she reported what happened.

Another woman listed in the indictment said that when Kindley transported her in 2014, he stopped his van in a deserted area, also in Arkansas, under the guise of having gotten lost. He then forced her to perform a sex act on him.

A third woman testified that Kindley allegedly sexually assaulted her when he transported her in 2013 from Florida to Texas. A fourth woman alleged that he forced her to perform a sex act on him while he was transporting her from Nevada to California in 2012. A fifth woman alleged that Kindley attempted to sexually assault her during her transport in 2013, from California to Montana.

Investigation into Kindley began in January 2017 when two women who were detained together in a jail in Arizona reported that Kindley sexually assaulted them during two separate transports.

Investigators said a total of 16 women had accused Kindley of some form of sexual misconduct during transport.

“I’m wary of government officials because of what Eric Kindley had said and [did] during my transport …The offender in this case used his so called ‘position of power’ to cause [me] to endure undue stress, grief, and loss of self-worth,” read one victim impact statement.