In March, the Sylvester Police Department entered Worth County High School in Georgia to conduct a drug search. The officers used a K-9 and came up empty, as no drugs were found.
Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby didn’t believe the Sylvester police had done a thorough enough job, so he and deputies Tyler Turner and Deidra Whiddon entered Worth County High School, put the school on lockdown for two hours, separated the boys from the girls, ordered them up against the wall, and searched all 900 students for drugs. Needless to say, students and parents were angry about the invasive pat-downs and lack of probable cause. Interim Worth County Superintendent Lawrence Walters said they had no idea how far the sheriff and his deputies were going to go that day:
Interim Worth County Superintendent Lawrence Walters said he understands parents concerns about the drug search at Worth County High school on Friday.
"I've never been involved with anything like that ever in the past 21 years and I don't condone it," said Walters.
Walters said in March Sheriff Jeff Hobby told him his department was going to do a drug search at the school after spring break.
"We did not give permission but they didn't as for permission, he just said, the sheriff, that he was going to do it after spring break," said Walters.
This week a grand jury returned six charges against the sheriff and two deputies:
Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby is being charged with violation of oath by a public officer, two counts of false imprisonment under color of law and one count of sexual battery.
The indictment says the Sheriff violated the terms of his oath by ordering deputies to search students at Worth County High School on April 14, 2017 without probable cause or any other legal basis and without due process.
It goes on to say that he and one of his deputies intentionally made physical contact with intimate parts of a male student’s body by touching the student’s groin.
Worth County Deputies Tyler Turner and Deidra Whiddon, also known as Deidra Tucker, are also facing charges.
Turner for sexual battery and violation of oath by a public officer and Tucker for violation of oath by a public officer.
No drugs were found in the search. Several families have filed a federal lawsuit for violating the students' Fourth and 14th Amendment rights:
Lawyers for the Southern Center for Human Rights are representing the students and the nine families who filed the lawsuit.
"To vindicate the rights of these children who were violated physically, who were so affected by the search that they were subject to that they felt humiliated," said Southern Center for Human Rights Attorney Crystal Redd.
The lawsuit claims the deputies conducted the search without individualized suspicion.
"The Fourth Amendment requires individualized suspicion before a police officer would be able to touch the child," explained Redd.