PORTLAND — As many as four corrections officers could face disciplinary action after two inmates at the Cumberland County Jail were discovered to have had sex in a maximum-security cell.

Michael D’Angelo, 34, of Middleborough, Mass., and Renee Glantz, 23, of Windham, will likely not face charges after Glantz left her cell Saturday around 11:15 a.m. to visit D’Angelo, according to Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce.

But Joyce on Monday promised a thorough investigation by an Internal Affairs lieutenant into how Glantz and D’Angelo kept their cell doors unlocked, and how two day-room doors were left unlocked by guards, which allowed Glantz to walk about 40 feet and spend 3 1/2 hours in D’Angelo’s cell.

Joyce said the consensual sex between the inmates, who had probably never seen each other before, but spoke to each other through the jail’s ventilation system, is considered an administrative matter.

He said the investigation could take a week.

It was the second such incident at the jail in the last two years. Almost two years to the day before Saturday’s incident, inmates Arien L’Italien and Karla Wilson had sex after L’Italien escaped his cell, according to the Bangor Daily News. Jail procedures were revised after that episode.

While Joyce said he was relieved no one was injured this time and said the public was never in danger because of the incident, he added it is likely there were many procedural mistakes made.

Joyce said an inmate attempting to escape would have to breach at least six more doors.

The sheriff said officers showed “lapses of judgments ” by leaving day-room doors unlocked while distributing lunch trays to cells – “a shortcut that is unacceptable,” Joyce said – by not ensuring cell doors were locked during checks every 15 minutes, and by not thoroughly checking inside cells to “make sure they are looking at living, breathing flesh.”

Joyce said Glantz and D’Angelo “had a plan on how to meet up,” one they made in part by studying the work habits of officers.

“Inmates have all the time on their hands,” he said. “They get pretty crafty.”

Glantz, who has been held for at least three months on probation violations from prior drug charges, has been held in the maximum security area because of disciplinary problems, including breaking sprinkler heads, Joyce said.

D’Angelo is being held for the U.S. Marshal Service, although Joyce was uncertain about the charges against him and how long he had been detained.

Joyce said the men and women in maximum security do not see each other and are only let out of their cells alone. He said two officers are on duty in the maximum-security area, which has three cells for women.

“Two doors were manipulated by inmates,” he said about how the cell door locks were jammed, possibly using cardboard toilet paper rolls.

David Harry can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 110 or dharry@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHarry8.

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Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said Monday he expects it will take a week to complete a review of lapses that allowed a female inmate to escape her cell and visit a male inmate in a separate maximum security wing.

Renee Glantz