Former guard’s charges upgraded to sexual battery

PANAMA CITY — Prosecutors upgraded the charges against a former guard at the Bay County Jail this week from sexual misconduct between a detention employee and an inmate to sexual battery.

Deputies arrested 47-year-old Pedro Reyes on the initial charges in November, saying at the time the sex was consensual. Prosecutors did not explain the reason for the more severe charge of sexual battery, but an investigative report released by the State Attorney’s Office indicates that the victim felt forced to have sex with Reyes because he was in a position of authority over her. Reyes is not accused of using physical force in the course of the alleged crime.

The victim, who is not being identified due to the nature of the crime, 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 with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office that on one of the occasions, she spit semen onto the shirt she was wearing so she would have DNA evidence against him.

According to a transcript of the victim’s interview with investigators she explained why she gave the shirt to another woman at the jail. She said:

“I didn’t want it to just disappear and … uh … I don’t know, I was scared. I was scared. I didn’t wanna, you know … .”

“So you wanted her to hold…,” the investigator said.

“Feel like … uh … if a cop is able to do that to me then they can do anything.”

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.

An unsigned, undated, handwritten letter included in the investigative report appears to have been written by the victim perhaps to her mother.

“I just want her to know that an officer here Mr. Reyes was coaxing me into having sex and oral sex (unprotected) with him…I have been scared to say something until I started hearing that I’m not the first girl,” the letter says.

When Reyes was arrested, investigators said they were looking into whether he had sex with any other inmates. According to the report, he admitted to having sex with at least two other women, one of whom denied it, and investigators were unable to contact the other. A fourth woman told investigators she had consensual sex with Reyes.

Any sex between a detention employee and an inmate is a third-degree felony, and consent is not a legitimate defense against prosecution, according to Florida statute.