By Zeke MacCormack
San Antonio Express-News
BANDERA — Bandera County Sheriff Weldon Tucker said Friday that he has fired a jail guard who admitted having sexual relations with a female prisoner. The case will be presented to a grand jury, he said.
“I’'m very disappointed,” Tucker said of Scott Sharp Jr., 19, who was fired Tuesday, a day he reportedly confirmed having intercourse with the unidentified detainee. He had worked as a jailer about six months.
The son of veteran sheriff’'s investigator Scott Sharp Sr., Sharp told investigators he had sex with the inmate on three or four occasions, according to Tucker, who said the inmate denied that any such contact had occurred.
Sharp could not be reached for comment Friday.
His father, Sgt. Sharp, said he did not participate in the investigation of his son and had apologized to Tucker for negative publicity generated by the incident.
Tucker said the results of the department’'s investigation will be brought to a grand jury next month.
In a similar case last year, a county jail worker pleaded no contest to having improper sexual contact with a person in custody and was fined $500 and placed on four years deferred adjudication, court records show.
Juan Garcia of Bandera, who worked as a jail cook for 15 years, fondled a prisoner in May 2006.
Copyright 2008 San Antonio Express-News