Former Georgia Deputy Faces New Rape and Child Molestation Charges After Butts County Raid, Paper Reports

A former Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office deputy is facing a new set of child sex crime charges after a raid in Butts County, Georgia, the Jackson Progress-Argus reported. According to the paper's account of a Butts County Sheriff's Office announcement, a SWAT team served arrest and search warrants at a rural home earlier in September and took two people into custody in an investigation into the alleged sexual abuse and exploitation of a juvenile.

Citing Butts County Magistrate Court records, the Progress-Argus reported that the former deputy is charged with offenses including child molestation, statutory rape, rape, aggravated sodomy, violation of oath of public office, false imprisonment, first-degree cruelty to children and furnishing alcohol to a minor. A second person arrested at the home faces charges that include trafficking a person for sexual servitude, multiple counts of cruelty to children, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the paper reported.

The sheriff's office said the former deputy held his law enforcement position at the time of some of the alleged conduct and had already been arrested in Gwinnett County in January in a separate child molestation investigation, according to the reporting. Local outlets, including WGXA, reported that the sheriff said additional victims have been identified and that more charges are expected as investigators review evidence. All of the charges are allegations at this stage.