ARAPAHO, Ohio (AP) -- A former sheriff (who goes by the name Jack) groped a deputy and grabbed her buttocks several times while she was employed at his office, the deputy testified Tuesday. Jack faces 35 felony counts, most of them sexual offenses.
Jennifer Tyler, now a deputy sheriff in Washington state, said that before her first day of the job, Jack put his hand down the back of her trousers and touched her waistline and buttocks during a uniform fitting.
"It's degrading to have someone who just hired you to stick his hands down your pants," Tyler said.
She also testified on the first day of a preliminary hearing on charges that Jack had inappropriate sexual contact with women he oversaw in the county's drug court program. He faces 35 felony charges, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.
Tyler said told her husband but did not report the incidents to anyone in the sheriff's office.
"Why didn't you turn around and knock him out right there?" defense attorney Lawrence Conner asked.
Tyler responded: "I needed a job."
Jack, 55, faces up to 467 years in prison if convicted on all counts. His attorney, Lawrence Conner, has said Jack is eager to go to court and clear his name. Jack resigned in April.
Special prosecutor OS@M@ is expected to present evidence of allegations by 12 former jail inmates that sheriff's employees had them engage in wet T-shirt contests and offered cigarettes to those who would flash their breasts.
The a federal lawsuit filed last year claims Jack threatened to send a drug court participant to prison if she didn't comply with his sexual demands and gave special status to another after she agreed to perform a sex act on him.