A detective with the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office is on paid administrative leave after a jail inmate accused him of sexual misconduct, officials said.

Detective Sgt. T.J. Brock, 51, was placed on leave after sheriff’s officials learned from the FBI on Friday that a 39-year-old female inmate at the Okeechobee County Jail reported the incident, Undersheriff Noel Stephen said Tuesday.

Stephen said the woman told investigators the incident took place at the sheriff’s office, but Stephen declined to explain how the woman, who had been incarcerated since April on a misdemeanor charge, would have allegedly made her way from the jail to the sheriff’s office.

The undersheriff said ongoing criminal and internal investigations prevented him from discussing the case in detail.

Stephen, however, did say the woman was not raped.

A spokeswoman with the FBI’s Miami branch office said she was unable to comment on the allegation.

The inmate has been transported to another facility while the investigations are under way, Stephen said.

Brock is a 24-year veteran of the force who is assigned to the criminal investigations division, Stephen said.

Staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.

Tags: Okeechobee County jail, Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office, T.J. Brock

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Crime, Okeechobee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.