Agents with the State Bureau of Investigation arrested a Gates County sheriff’s deputy on Friday, May 26, on sexual assault charges of a prisoner in his custody, and his case went before a Grand Jury in Hertford County this morning.
Deputy Patrick Batts, a six-month employee of the Gates County Sheriff’s Office, is charged with sexual contact by a custodian, obstruction of justice and first degree sexual offense.
Batts was transporting a female prisoner from Gates County to the Hertford County jail late Wednesday evening, May 24. In the early morning hours of Thursday, May 25, he reported that the prisoner had escaped. Surveillance video shows that the deputy let the prisoner get out of the car and leave.
Agents arrested Batts that night for actions that occurred while on route to the jail, and took him to a holding cell at the Hertford County jail. He was being held on a $150,000 secured bond.
###