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| Inmates, former deputies claim sheriff used inmate labor for personal use |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/31/2004 |
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The Jenkins County (Ga.) sheriff illegally put inmates to work at his timber business, mobile home park and his home for more than a decade, The Augusta Chronicle reported last Sunday. The newspaper obtained statements from 31 former inmates and two former deputies about James Robert ''Bobby'' Womack's alleged actions. Inmates said they ran chain saws cutting timber in his woods, patched up holes in the walls of trailers and laid sod and cut grass at his home. Under Georgia law, it is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison each time a sheriff uses inmate labor for personal gain. William Oglesby, a convicted child molester, said that while awaiting a transfer from Jenkins County to the state system in fall 2002, the sheriff had him drive logging trucks to sawmills as far away as Savannah and Bulloch County. He worked sometimes from morning to midnight and was paid cash ranging from $100 to $250 a week, he said. Thirty-one of 48 parolees, probationers and state prisoners contacted by the newspaper who were convicted in Jenkins County and held in the county jail said the sheriff let inmates out of jail to work on his log crews, do odd jobs around his house or remodel trailers and houses. Fifteen of the 31 former inmates said they were among the workers dating back to 1990. Seven men also said they were told to wash the sheriff's and his wife's personal cars outside the jail. Several former inmates said they earned cash or could leave the jail for the weekend in exchange for working at Womack's properties. Womack and his wife own more than 215 acres in Jenkins County, located south of Augusta, including 175 acres off U.S. Highway 25, a store, two houses, a mobile home park and a cluster of trailers, according to records from the Jenkins County tax assessor's office. Former Jenkins County deputies James Chesser and Leroy Morgan confirmed the work accounts. Womack, 69, has been sheriff since 1984 and said he does not plan to seek another term, citing his age and poor health. Womack did not return repeated calls seeking comment. |
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