A probation officer in Nebraska has been sentenced to nine years in prison sexual contact with female probationers.

The prison term will be followed by five years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney for Nebraska Deborah Gilg says Thomas Peterson was sentenced to the maximum prison term for his conviction on four counts of violating the civil rights of female probationers under his supervision and one count of lying to the F.B.I. during the subsequent investigation. A jury in Lincoln returned the guilty verdicts in July.

Gilg says evidence introduced at trial established that Peterson was a state probation officer with the District 9 probation office in Kearney. He supervised a caseload made up of offenders in need of intensive supervision. The jury heard evidence that from approximately 2010 through January of 2014, Mr. Peterson subjected four female probationers to unsolicited and non-consensual sexual contact.

The jury also heard from three other women who had been supervised by Mr. Peterson who reported sexually charged advances or comments from Mr. Peterson which did not progress to the level of sexual contact. The jury found that Peterson had violated the civil rights of the four probationers by intruding into their constitutional rights to bodily integrity.

Peterson was ordered to self-surrender at the facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons no later than January 9, 2017.