MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Five women have accused a Montgomery County sheriff’s major and a chaplain of sexually assaulting them while they were in prison.
News Center 7 has obtained a copy of the federal civil lawsuit and spoke with those involved in the case.
Cleveland based layer Nick DiCello is filing the case, stating the women had their rights violated inside the jail.
“[I want to] hold people accountable, if we can prove our claims we expect the civil justice system will accomplish that goal,” said DiCello.
The lawsuit makes a number of claims, including one Jane Doe accusing the jail commander, Sheriff’s Major Jeremy Roy of having her escorted to a room in the jail then forcing her to perform a sex act.
The lawsuit claims Roy escorted her back to her housing unit and asked in a threatening manner, “you’re going to keep quiet?”
That Jane Doe and four others also accuse the jail program coordinator and chaplain Willie Templeton Jr. of raping them.
The complaints against Templeton happened between March of 2019 and July of 2020. The complaints all described very similar attacks on the five women, at the jail or at sheriff’s headquarters across the street.
The lawsuit says women were called names during the attack or threatened to not tell anyone what happened.
The Montgomery County sheriff spoke with News Center 7′s Mike Campbell about the lawsuit.
“I hold my employees to the highest standard and take this allegation of predatory behavior very seriously,” said the sheriff. “While I cannot comment directly on the allegations due to pending litigation, the citizens of Montgomery County should not take my silence about the lawsuit as a rush to judgement about the character of those accused. Neither Program Coordinator/Chaplain Willie Templeton or Major Jeremy Roy had any similar previous allegations of misconduct.”
The sheriff has assigned Roy and Templeton to other duties while launching an internal investigation and asking for an outside criminal investigation.
The sheriff also said that no inmates have filed complaints regarding Roy or Templeton.
DiCello says the sheriff’s department will have 30 days to file a response to the lawsuit, then a federal judge will set a timeline for what happens next.
Cox Media Group
