Two County Jailers Arrested
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WATER VALLEY — Two part-time Yalobusha County jailers were arrested and charged with having sex with inmates following an investigation that began with a tip from inside the county jail, according to Sheriff Jerimaine Gooch.
Wade Myles of Carroll County and Garrett Alston of Lafayette County were arrested during the first week of September following an investigation into allegations involving female inmates. Both men have since been released on bond.
Gooch said the alleged incidents occurred during the last week of August and came to the attention of the sheriff’s department after investigators received information that inappropriate sexual activity involving jail employees and female inmates was taking place.
The department immediately began an investigation led by Chief Investigator Taylor Byford.
While cameras did not capture the alleged activity, Gooch said surveillance footage showed the employees and female inmates entering areas outside camera coverage and remaining there for periods of time. Byford then interviewed female inmates and compared their accounts with surveillance footage and timelines developed during the investigation.
“We were able to corroborate their stories with what we were seeing on the cameras and the times we had established,” Chief Deputy Thomas West said.
Once the allegations surfaced, neither jailer was allowed to return to work or have contact with the inmates while the investigation continued.
“We weren’t going to put them back in the jail around the people making these allegations while we were trying to determine exactly what happened,” Gooch said.
Both Myles and Alston worked as part-time jailers and typically worked only a few days each month.
The investigation moved quickly, taking several days from the initial tip to the arrests.
Investigators arranged for Myles to come to the jail, where he was interviewed and subsequently arrested. Gooch said investigators also attempted to arrange for Alston to come in for questioning but were unsuccessful. Alston was then entered into the National Crime Information Center as wanted, and members of the U.S. Marshals Service apprehended him in Lafayette County.
Both men were charged with sex with an inmate and later released on bond.
Gooch said the fact that the allegations involved sheriff’s department employees made it particularly important for the department to investigate the case thoroughly and openly.
“The public has to be able to trust the sheriff’s department, and that means we have to hold our own people to the same standard we hold everyone else,” Gooch said. “When an allegation involves one of our employees, we are going to investigate it, follow the evidence and take the appropriate action.”
Gooch said maintaining that standard is essential to maintaining the public’s confidence in the department.
