Three Floyd County Jail inmates were arrested on sodomy charges Tuesday for their alleged roles in the Friday night sexual assault of a fellow inmate, authorities said.
According to Floyd County Jail records:
Melvin Rucker, 42, was charged with aggravated sodomy while Isaac Lamar Chaney, 25, and Rusty Toby Strickland, 37, were each charged with being a party to a crime of sodomy. Bail had not been set Tuesday night for the three, who remained at the facility.
Rucker has been in jail since Jan. 17 on charges of failing to make child support payments; Strickland was booked into the jail Oct. 17 on drug and weapons charges; Chaney has been in jail since Dec. 15 accused of a probation violation and failing to appear in court for his second offense of driving on a suspended license.
Between 6 and 8 p.m. Friday, Chaney and Strickland were in a jail cell in I Block, where they held down the 27-year-old victim while Rucker sodomized him, according to wording on warrants issued by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The victim was evaluated by the jail’s in-house medical staff, then sent to Floyd Medical Center for further exams, though Chief Deputy Tom Caldwell IV said he was unable to provide a specific timeframe as they are still investigating the case.
“That’s kind of the part we’re focusing on now,” he said. “There’s still some things that we have to confirm.”
The victim was released from jail Saturday after posting bail, he said.
Two inmates are assigned to each cell, though Caldwell said that before 10 p.m. the cells are open and the inmates can wander in and out of each other’s quarters.
There are towers inside the jail from which jailers watch four cellblocks, with each containing 32 individual cells. “There’s always just one jail officer in the tower,” the chief deputy said. “That’s a pretty big area to watch.”
There are panic buttons inside each cell to alert deputies, though Caldwell said it is not clear if the victim pressed it or not.
The sheriff’s office did not make the investigation public until the three men had been charged, Caldwell said. He did not anticipate more charges.
Friday night’s assault was an isolated incident, Caldwell said.
“In correctional settings, overall, it is not that unusual, (but) it is not a common occurrence at the Floyd County Jail,” he said.
