A superior court judge sentenced a former jailer with the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office Thursday in a case involving three inmates who accused the jail officer of unwanted sexual contact.
Interestingly, another former Effingham County jailer, David Wayne Williford of Clyo, pleaded guilty to the same charge against two inmates in 2015 and faced 100 years in prison, but received just ten years on probation, six months at a probation detention center, and a $1,000 fine. In the Williford case, the sexual contact definitively included oral sex. In Thursday’s case, the allegations included touching and kissing.
Case Background
Investigators with the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ever David Jandres, now 40, in March 2019 on charges stemming from sexual contact with an individual in custody. The Sheriff’s Office said ‘enough evidence’ was collected to make the arrest for ‘sexual assault by a law enforcement agency employee who engages in sexual contact with an individual in custody.’
In December 2019, a grand jury indicted Jandres on three counts of Sexual Assault by an Inmate or Person in Custody based on:
- Touching the breasts and vagina of Inmate #1 with his hands on some unknown date between December 1, 2018 and February 25, 2019;
- Touching the breasts, vagina, and buttocks of Inmate #2 with his hands on some unknown date between January 15, 2019 and February 25, 2019;
- Touching the breasts and vagina of Inmate #3 with “his hands and/or mouth” on some unknown date between December 15, 2018 and February 14, 2019, and for kissing the same inmate on the mouth.
The warrants differ from the indictment in that only two inmates are mentioned in the warrants in February while three are listed in the December indictment. Additionally, the incident stemming from inmate #2 references digital penetration in the warrant, but no such reference is made in the indictments. According to a civil suit filed in the Southern District of Georgia, the incidents reportedly occurred in a solitary confinement area that “housed defenseless female inmates” and “lacked proper security provisions.”
In February 2021, Assistant District Attorney Matt Breedon filed a motion to introduce ‘similar acts’ to corroborate his case, including five inmates who allegedly heard Jandres make ‘sexually explicit’ comments at work.
On June 9, 2022, Jandres entere an open-ended plea of ‘Guilty’ on all three counts. Two weeks later, on June 23, Judge Peed sentenced Jandres to ‘50 years to serve.’
Primer on Types of Sexual Contact Under Georgia Law
Georgia law dictates that individuals in custody cannot give consent to sexual activity with persons with supervisory authority. Further, for the code sections below, ‘sexually explicit conduct’ is defined as actual or simulated:
- sexual intercourse (of any variety)
- bestiality,
- masturbation,
- lewd exhibition of genitals,
- flagellation/torture of person who is nude,
- condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained on the part of a person who is nude
- physical contact for sexual stimulation/gratification with unclothed genitals/pubic area, buttocks, or with female’s nude breasts;
- defecation/urination for purpose of sexual stimulation;
- penetration of vagina/rectum outside of medical procedure authority
| OFFENSE | DEFINITION | SENTENCING RANGE |
| 1st degree Improper Sexual Condact by Employee/agent OCGA 16-6-5.1(B)(3) | when the employee engages in ‘sexually explicit conduct’ with a person they know – or should have known – is in custody. | Felony 1-25 years and up to $100,000 fine. |
| 2nd degree Improper Sexual Condact by Employee/Agent | same as above, without the component of sexually explicit conduct. | Misdemeanor, high & aggravated |
The sentence imposed is among the harsher ones imposed in the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit as of late, with two individuals with serious Aggravated Assault cases that left victims near death with considerably shorter sentences.
