A former federal corrections officer accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a detained woman at a residential reentry center in Detroit has taken a plea agreement.
Arthur Foster of Detroit pleaded guilty on Tuesday, May 19, to one count of sexual abuse of a ward tied to an incident in early 2025, according to online records from the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan and a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Foster, said to be in his 40s, was indicted in fall 2025 on three counts of sexual abuse of a detainee, all involving the same listed woman under his supervision at the residential reentry facility Cherry Health Community Treatment Center in Detroit.
In the plea agreement, Foster admitted to one of the reported encounters.
On the evening of Feb. 5, 2025, the woman was in the facility’s computer room when Foster called her to his office and then directed her to meet him in the women’s restroom, according to the signed agreement in online court records.
In the bathroom, the woman “told Foster that she could not keep meeting him like this, and she did not want to have a sexual encounter with him,” the agreement stated. “Foster then directed (the woman) to perform oral sex on him.”
The next sentence was crossed out in the plea agreement available online. The initials of the involved attorneys and Foster were shown next to it. The crossed-out line had indicated that physical force came next.
Neither the federal defender for Foster nor Foster himself could be immediately reached for comment. Questions on the crossed-out line were not immediately answered when directed to the U.S. attorney’s office that announced the plea.
The crime was blasted as a serious abuse of power in a joint news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General’s Midwest Region, and the FBI Detroit Field Office.
“This defendant abused the public trust in the worst way by sexually assaulting a person under his care,” said Jerome F. Gorgon Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, in a statement in the release. “This is crime (that) hurts the victim, the institution, and our system of justice.”
The woman was committed to the facility just about a month before, on Jan. 8, 2025, according to the filing.
The indictment had accused Foster of also sexually abusing the woman on Jan. 17 and Jan. 23, 2025, and making contact with her genitalia both times.
Foster was released on an unsecured $10,000 bond in October 2025 and was later ordered to have electronic alcohol monitoring after testing positive for alcohol and marijuana in his system, according to court records.
The federal charge to which Foster pleaded guilty is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Prosecutors recommended that the court, while considering sentencing guidelines, give Foster a reduction based on his acceptance of responsibility, according to the plea agreement.
Foster is scheduled for sentencing in September 2026 in front of U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin A. Drain.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Federal officer accused of repeat sex abuse of detainee takes plea
Reporting by Darcie Moran, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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