PANAMA CITY — A former Bay County Jail officer who had sex with multiple inmates has been sentenced to five years probation, according to Bay County Court records.
Pedro Reyes, 48 was arrested in November 2013 on charges of sexual misconduct and admitted to having sex with at least two female inmates. Reyes, a detention corporal employed by the jail since 2008, was fired; and months later prosecutors upgraded charges against him to sexual battery. However, Reyes pleaded no contest to one count of sexual misconduct between and inmate and detention employee Thursday and was sentenced to five years probation.
When Reyes was arrested, investigators said they were looking into whether he had sex with any other inmates. According to investigators’ reports, he admitted to having sex with at least two other women, one of whom denied it. Officers were unable to contact the other. A fourth woman told investigators she had consensual sex with Reyes.
An investigative report released in February indicated that one victim felt forced to have sex with Reyes because he was in a position of authority over her. Reyes was not accused of using physical force in the course of the alleged crime.
The victim told investigators she felt threatened by Reyes, but she came forward after hearing that he had been having sex with other inmates.
She said Reyes had sexual contact with her on three occasions in a closet in the laundry at the jail. She told investigators that on one of the occasions, she spit semen onto the shirt she was wearing so she would have DNA evidence against him.
Investigators took custody of the shirt and submitted it to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for DNA analysis. Reyes’ DNA matched the DNA on the shirt, according to a lab report included in the investigative report.