Ex-Noxubee County sheriff will serve one day in prison for lying to the FBI

For nearly two decades, former Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree has dodged allegations of criminal conduct as well as covering it up. On Wednesday, he was finally sentenced by a federal court: to one day in prison.

District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III also gave the 61-year-old retired officer a $2,500 fine and six months’ home detention for lying to the FBI when he denied that he made a jailed woman send him explicit photos and videos in exchange for favorable treatment.

“Power corrupts,” Jordan observed while sentencing Grassaree. “And few people have more power than a county sheriff.”

Grassaree had faced up to five years in prison, but federal sentencing guidelines recommended between zero and six months because he hasn’t been previously convicted.

Jordan rejected prosecutors’ recommendation to sentence Grassaree in the lower half of those guidelines and gave him the maximum under those guidelines.

Although Grassaree’s conviction centered on his lies to the FBI, a 2o23 investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times uncovered wide-ranging and serious allegations far beyond them.

At a minimum, the examination detailed gross mismanagement at the Noxubee County jail that repeatedly put female inmates in harm’s way. At worst, it told the story of a sheriff who operated with impunity, even as he was accused of abusing the people in his custody, turning a blind eye to women who said they were raped and trying to cover it up when caught.

As sheriff, Grassaree said he stoked fear into the citizens of Noxubee County by imitating his idol, wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. In the jail, he was called “Big Dog,” and allegations arose that he beat or choked people, including one of his fellow deputies.

On Wednesday, Jordan described what he called “a disturbing pattern of lawlessness in the county jail” that included witnesses saying Grassaree choked a female employee as well as allegations he beat inmates with a broomstick and “gave the greenlight” for the beatings of other inmates.

In a 2007 lawsuit, at least four people who had been arrested gave sworn statements accusing Grassaree of violence. Two of the people said he choked or beat them while they were in his custody. A third said he pinned her against a wall and threatened to let a male inmate rape her.

“I can’t ignore all of that,” Jordan said. “You ran that department.”

On Tuesday, Jordan sentenced former deputy Vance Phillips, who had sex with a  jailed woman behind bars for years, to one day in prison, plus a $2,500 fine and eight months’ home detention, where he will be allowed to work his 60-hour-a-week job, play drums in the church band and visit his doctor if he wishes.

During Phillips’ sentencing hearing, Jordan remarked that she “wasn’t really a victim because she flirted and initiated the relationships.

The jailed woman, Elizabeth Layne Reed, said the judge’s remark blindsided her.

Reed — who spent four years in jail accused of a homicide that the district attorney eventually dismissed, concluding she was innocent — described her incarceration as “torture” and said the judge’s comments were akin to victim blaming.

“I’m the one in jail. They have the power over me. I never wanted to have sex,” she said.  “I was afraid because I knew the power that the sheriff had.” 

She denied that she initiated sexual contact with members of the sheriff’s office. She said she asked Phillips if he could get her a cellphone to use so she could contact her family. 

But she didn’t have any cash on hand, she said, and asked Phillips if she could pay him at a later date.

“Well, there is another way you could get it in if you really wanted it,” she quoted him as saying. “That’s when it first started. He initiated every bit of it.”

By Wednesday, Jordan had changed his mind. “I do consider her to be a victim,” he said, owing to the diminished authority possessed by Reed at the time, and the unequal power dynamic between her and Phillips and Grassaree.

Jordan said Grassaree was a willing participant who lied about his actions. He allowed Reed to receive a contraband cellphone and other benefits. He even made her a trusted inmate, also known as a “trusty.” 

In both Mississippi and federal prisons, it is a crime for an officer to bring in contraband. It is also a felony to have sex with any inmate. Under state law, a convicted officer faces up to five years in prison; under federal law, that maximum is 15 years.

But pursuing federal charges in cases involving state jails or prisons is complicated by guidance issued by the Department of Justice in 2018, which stipulates that officers cannot be federally prosecuted for violating a person’s civil rights if the person “truly made a voluntary decision as to what she wanted to do with her body,” particularly if she received a benefit or special treatment in exchange for sex.

Andrea Armstrong, a law professor at Loyola University, said the Prison Rape Elimination Act standards “are clear: sex between an incarcerated person and a staff member is sexual abuse. Full stop. That’s because an incarcerated person is under the total control and authority of staff. Fully voluntary and free consent in such situations is impossible.”

After Grassaree’s sentencing, his attorney, Aafram Sellers, said his client was facing the consequences of his actions, for which he takes full responsibility. “Law enforcement is held to a higher standard, to protect and serve,” Sellers said. “He made some bad choices. But this sentence reflects the career of a man who upheld the law and served his community.” 

Sellers asked for probation for Grassaree, who has suffered a heart attack and is now caring for his 87-year-old mother, who lives next door.

Grassaree rose through the ranks of the Noxubee County Sheriff’s Department, from a deputy mopping floors, to chief deputy, to the elected position of sheriff, making him one of the most powerful figures in town.

The investigation by Mississippi Today and the Times revealed that allegations have dogged Grassaree for much of his time in the department.

At least eight men — including four deputies and Grassaree himself — have been accused by jailed women of sexual touching or abuse while Grassaree was in charge.

In her 2020 lawsuit, which was settled for an unknown amount, Reed described how she had been coerced into having sex with two deputies. In return, the deputies supplied her with contraband cellphones.

She also described sexual touching by Grassaree and additional deputies, including Damon Clark. None of the deputies besides Phillips was prosecuted. A grand jury did indict the three male inmates accused of rape, only to reverse itself a day later.

According to her lawsuit, Grassaree knew all about his deputies’ “sexual contacts and shenanigans” but did nothing to “stop the coerced sexual relationships.” 

Instead of intervening, the lawsuit alleged, the sheriff “sexted” her and demanded that she use the phone the deputies had given her to send him “a continuous stream of explicit videos, photographs and texts” while she was in jail. She also alleged in the lawsuit that Grassaree touched her in a “sexual manner.”

It was revealed in court Wednesday that Phillips told authorities that when Grassaree confronted him, he admitted he had sex with Reed and that Grassaree sent him home for the day.

Sellers said Grassaree heard rumors about Phillips having sex, but never confirmed it. Grassaree denied touching Reed sexually.

Even now, no higher authority has reviewed how Grassaree ran the jail or whether his policies endangered women, because in Mississippi, as in many states, rural sheriffs are left largely to police themselves and their jails.

In 2006, after Grassaree and his staff left jail cell keys hanging openly on a wall, male inmates opened the doors to the cell of two female inmates and raped them, according to statements the women gave to state investigators. One of the women said Grassaree pressured her to sign a false statement to cover up the crimes, according to a report made by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. The other said that Grassaree pressured her into staying silent, telling her that if she spoke up about the rapes, he and other deputies would “lose their jobs,” according to her sworn statement.

Reed said Wednesday that “just because the justice system failed me, that doesn’t mean that others who went through it or are going through it should not speak up.”