A former Murray County Sheriff’s Office detention officer was arrested last week by the GBI on four charges, including three counts of sexual assault.
Bryson Wallace Starks, 24, of Resaca, faces three counts of sexual assault against a person in custody and a violation of oath by a public officer, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles confirmed to AJC.com. He was arrested Friday and booked into the Whitfield County Jail on Wednesday afternoon, jail records show.
Murray County chief Deputy Jimmy Davenport told the Dalton Daily Citizen-News that an inmate reported "inappropriate conduct" by Starks on March 7, 2019. That prompted the deputy to be placed on suspended leave the next day.
He was fired March 13, according to Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) records. He had worked for the sheriff’s office for about nine months and had no disciplinary history.
Davenport told the Citizen-News that Starks was fired for violating the office’s “code of conduct.”
The GBI was called in to investigate the allegations. The case had few developments until Jan. 17, when new information became available that led to the arrest warrants, Davenport told the newspaper.
Starks is being held in Whitfield County since it is customary not to hold law enforcement officers in a jail operated by their department, Davenport told the newspaper.
AJC.com has reached out to the Murray County Sheriff’s Office for more information on this incident and investigation.
— AJC data specialist Jennifer Peebles contributed to this article.
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