A former state corrections officer has pleaded not guilty to charges that he had sex with a prisoner.

Braford Howard, 36, of Lyman, was arrested last month on two counts of gross sexual assault based on a warrant issued by the state Attorney General’s Office.

A corrections officer at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham since July 2006, Howard has since resigned from the facility. He pleaded not guilty at an appearance Tuesday in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Prison officers are forbidden from having even consensual sex with prisoners.