A Louisiana deputy accused of sexually assaulting a teen during her time behind bars has managed to hang onto a job with the local sheriff’s office, though he no longer works in the same division.
The St. Bernard’s Parish Sheriff’s Office in March settled a federal lawsuit accusing 69-year-old Eddie Williams of sexual misconduct for $200,000, a settlement recently made public by the New Orleans Advocate.
According to a lawsuit filed in December 2016, Williams ordered the jailed 15-year-old to disrobe before a surveillance camera and to masturbate in front of him while she was incarcerated between June 2015 and January 2016.
The allegations against the deputy first came to light after a different juvenile complained that Williams had struck him while he was in custody. Amid the investigations, a jail counselor spoke with another boy who claimed he heard Williams request a girl remove her shirt over the jail’s intercom system.
The officer was initially placed on administrative leave while authorities investigated the allegations, though Williams was eventually allowed to return to the jail’s adult division. He was then later moved to the maintenance fleet division, where he still works.
The girl’s attorney, Gary Bizal, argued in court documents that Williams never should have been in contact with teenage girls at the time of his client’s alleged assault. He cited an incident in July 2008, about a year after he started working for the Sheriff’s Office, involving a different incarcerated 15-year-old.
“I don’t have any candy, but I have something else to put in your mouth,” Williams was accused of saying to the teen.
The Sheriff’s Office said the girl declined to be interviewed by an internal investigator, ending the probe before it could begin.
The mother of the teen in the more recent incident said her daughter is still living “in a nightmare” years after her time behind bars.
“She stays up all night. When she finally does go to sleep, sometimes she’ll wake up screaming and crying,” her mother said in deposition. “She’s full of sweat. It looks like she just got out of the shower. All I can do is hold her and rock her and tell her she’s safe.”
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, who oversaw the case, dismissed the suit in March after the settlement was reached.
