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Tennessee Sheriff’s Deputy Indicted on 44 Charges, Including Rape and Stalking

Daniel Wilkey, who was charged on Tuesday with rape, extortion, stalking and assault, has previously been accused in lawsuits of false imprisonment, child molestation and forced baptism.

A sheriff’s deputy in Tennessee was indicted on Tuesday on 44 criminal charges — 25 of them felonies — over actions alleged to have been taken in the course of his official duties, including rape, extortion, stalking and assault, according to the authorities.

The charges against the deputy, Daniel Wilkey, include six counts of sexual battery; two counts of rape; and nine counts each of extortion, stalking and assault, according to court documents. Sheriff Jim Hammond of Hamilton County said in a statement on Tuesday that the indictments were connected “to incidents he was involved in while on duty in an official capacity.”

“In the days that follow, I want to reassure our community, each and every day the men and women of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office are to perform their duties in a deliberate, honorable and professional manner,” the sheriff said. “We are charged to protect this community and its citizens, and this is a responsibility I take very seriously.”

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Daniel WilkeyCredit...Hamilton County Sheriff's Office

Mr. Wilkey has also been the subject of multiple lawsuits while employed by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office that accuse him of misconduct, including false imprisonment, child molestation and forcibly baptizing a woman during a traffic stop.

The department said that Mr. Wilkey was released on bail from Hamilton County Jail shortly after midnight on Wednesday, and that a hearing would be held on Dec. 30 to determine his employment status. A lawyer for Mr. Wilkey did not respond to a message seeking comment on Wednesday.

Before his employment in Hamilton County, Mr. Wilkey worked as a law enforcement officer in neighboring Rhea County, Tenn., where he was accused in a wrongful-death lawsuit of fatally shooting an unarmed man in the head in 2014 while the man was receiving treatment at an emergency room. He was not charged criminally in the man’s death.

Two of the charges in Tuesday’s indictment, for felony rape and misdemeanor assault, stem from a traffic stop in July during which Mr. Wilkey and another deputy, Bobby Brewer, performed a body cavity search on a handcuffed black man after pulling over his car.

Neal Pinkston, the Hamilton County district attorney general, released dashboard camera footage of the episode two days after it occurred, leading to outrage from African-American leaders, who described the search as a rape. The handcuffed man has not been publicly identified, and Mr. Brewer has not been charged with a crime.

Robin Flores, a lawyer for the handcuffed man, filed a lawsuit against the county, Mr. Wilkey and Mr. Brewer. He said in an interview that the long list of indictments against Mr. Wilkey was evidence of a “systemic” culture of abuse and cover-up in the county.

“It has been going on here for a long time,” said Mr. Flores, who has filed lawsuits on behalf of several people who claim they were abused by Mr. Wilkey and other deputies. “There is a pattern and practice of misconduct by the sheriff’s office and the county.”

“What we allege over and over again is that this sheriff has repeatedly softballed or slow-walked misconduct in the ranks and lays out this message to the troops that they can do what they want,” he added.

Several of the indictments filed on Tuesday relate to a different traffic stop, in February, that involved Shandle Riley, whom prosecutors say Mr. Wilkey stalked, assaulted, extorted and falsely imprisoned.

Ms. Riley, who is also a client of Mr. Flores’s, described the events of that night in a lawsuit filed in September against Mr. Wilkey; a second deputy, Jacob Goforth; and the Hamilton County government.

In it, she accused Mr. Wilkey of illegally searching her car — during which he found a small amount of marijuana — and then offering not to arrest her if she would allow him to baptize her.

Ms. Riley said in the suit that she felt as if she had no choice but to agree to Mr. Wilkey’s strange demand, so she went with him to a lake, where he stripped to his underwear and brought her into the frigid, waist-deep water.

Mr. Wilkey fully submerged her in the lake with his hands on her back and her breasts while Mr. Goforth stood on a nearby boat ramp to serve as a witness to her baptism, she said.

“Wilkey held plaintiff under water for several moments, then with his hands still positioned on her back and breasts, raised plaintiff from the cold water,” Ms. Riley’s lawsuit claims. “Plaintiff was shivering uncontrollably and felt horribly violated.”

Liam Stack is a general assignment reporter. He was previously a political reporter based in New York and a Middle East correspondent based in Cairo. More about Liam Stack

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