Two jailers arrested, accused of sexually assaulting female inmate at Baldwin jail
A pair of detention officers at the Baldwin County jail were arrested last week after the sheriff there received a letter from a former female inmate’s lawyer alleging the inmate had been sexually assaulted while she was incarcerated.
The inmate had been moved to a jail in another county “weeks before” the allegations became known for unrelated reasons, Sheriff Bill Massee told The Telegraph on Monday.
Massee said that upon receiving a complaint via certified mail from the former inmate’s attorney he called on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on March 17 to look into the matter.
On Friday, Baldwin detention officer Mario Ward, 37, and former detention officer Christopher Dumas Jr., 20, were charged with sexual assault of a person in custody. Both have since been released from jail in lieu $25,000 bonds, Massee said.
Ward, a five-year veteran, was subsequently fired and Dumas was fired March 15 on an accusation that he violated the jail’s contraband policy, the sheriff said.
Massee said that Dumas, who had been working at the Milledgeville jail for less than a year, had been accused of “bringing in contraband” tobacco.
The date or dates of the alleged assault were not immediately known.
This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 12:59 PM.