Maury Co. officer convicted of obstruction of justice, attorney's office says
Editor’s note: This story headline has been updated to show that the Maury County corrections officer was convicted of obstruction of justice.
A Maury County corrections officer was convicted Thursday by a federal jury of obstruction of justice, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office of Middle District of Tennessee.
James Justice, also known as James Stewart Thomas, 32, of Columbia, a corrections officer with the Maury County Sheriff’s Office, was indicted in May 2022 and "charged with falsifying records relating to nonconsensual sexual contact that he had with a female inmate in his custody," a press release says from the office of U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis.
“Today’s verdict ensures that James Justice will be held accountable for his actions. As importantly, it ensures that he will no longer be entrusted to serve as a law enforcement officer,” Leventis said. “I commend our trial team and partners at the FBI for an excellent job of investigating and presenting this case to the jury.”
Testimony and evidence produced at trial established that Justice wrote an official report in which he falsely claimed that he had reported to two Maury County Jail supervisors that an inmate had made sexual advances toward him while the inmate was in his custody at a hospital.
The report also falsely claimed that those two Maury County Jail supervisors both advised him not to write a report about the alleged sexual advances by the inmate, and the report omitted that he had a sexual relationship with the inmate after her release from the custody of the Maury County Jail.
Maury County Sheriff Bucky Rowland called the incident unfortunate and a career-ending outcome, but also said repeated investigations into Justice, aka James Stewart Thomas, have uncovered no evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a female inmate while in custody.
"After numerous attempts of gaining evidence, there is no proof, information or complaint from a willing victim that would indicate James Thomas had any inappropriate relationship while an inmate was in custody," Rowland said.
"The Maury County Sheriff's Office, the 22nd District Attorney and the FBI have investigated finding no proof and no alleged victim has come forward to cooperate with authorities."
Justice faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 18. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Klopf of the Middle District of Tennessee and Trial Attorney Kyle Boynton of the Department’s Civil Rights Division prosecuted the case.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Maury Co. jail officer convicted of obstruction of justice
