Jailer faces sex crime charges after prisoner alleges assault

A 55-year-old jailer at the Lee County Jail has been charged with sexually assaulting a female prisoner. The alleged crime occurred on Sept. 16, 2015, when the woman was being transported to Raleigh, North Carolina, to the N.C. Correctional Institute for Women.

The charges the man is facing are a sex offense involving someone having custody of a victim and second-degree sex offense. According to the applications for search warrants, they alleged that the man forced her to perform oral sex and photographed her exposed breasts with her cellphone. She said that she was familiar with the man because of previous transports with him.

The woman allegedly told the deputy to stop, but it did no good. She said she also tried to pull away during the sex act, but the man wouldn’t let her. She reported what had occurred during the transport when she got to the prison. A rape kit was completed.

Data off the man’s phones was collected, as was a DNA sample. The woman’s phone has not been found.

The man was arrested and held for two days in the Wake Country Jail on a $250,000 bond, which was eventually posted.

Charges such as these can have immediate and long-term effects on a person’s social relationships and job prospects. The media has a tendency to “convict” someone before he or she even goes to trial when sex offenses are charged.

An experienced criminal defense attorney can provide more information to those charged with sex crimes, such as possible defense strategies and penalties. In addition, the attorney can attempt to limit the damage to the accused person’s reputation.

Source: The News & Observer, “Search warrants: Lee County jailer forced woman prisoner to perform oral sex,” Thomasi McDonald, Jan. 04, 2016