The three local jail guards accused of having sexual relations with two female inmates have been charged with sexual battery.
Sgt. James Alexander was charged with three counts of sexual battery. Officers Christopher Hayes and Ohaje Brown were both charged with one count of sexual battery.
The three Yazoo County Regional Correctional Facility guards appeared in their probable cause hearing last Friday with Judge Jannie Lewis.
Terry Gann, chief investigator with the Yazoo County Sheriff’s Department, said there is evidence that the three guards had sexual contact with two female inmates.
“We have evidence that Sgt. James Alexander went into an unauthorized area alone and had sex with two female inmates on Dec. 19,” Gann said. “We also have evidence that on Dec. 20, Christopher Hayes took one of the female inmates out of the segregated area where the females are housed. He carried her to an authorized area, the staff locker room, where he sexually assaulted her. Ohaje Brown then came into the area about two minutes later and also sexually assaulted the inmate.”
According to the victims, they said the acts were not consensual, Gann said.
“But in jail situations, it is never consensual,” Gann added. “Whether or not the acts were consensual or not consensual situations, it is still prohibited. Regardless if we find the acts were not forced and was consensual, it is still a felony.”
The three suspects have bonded out of jail and will head to Grand Jury this summer.
