A woman who spent more than four years in the Noxubee County Jail awaiting trial for capital murder before she was released on bond has now sued the county and several law enforcement officers who she says coerced her into sexual acts multiple times while she was in custody.
Elizabeth Reed of Lee County is one of four suspects indicted for the March 2, 2015, murder of Macon gas attendant Kristopher Haywood. She and the other suspects were arrested days after the murder and held in the jail until October 2019. Reed filed a civil lawsuit late last month in the federal court in Jackson, in which she names former Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree and former deputies Vance Phillips and Damon Clark.
In the complaint, Reed alleges Phillips and Clark coerced her into having sex with them, and in exchange, she was allowed to act as a trustee, could use a cell phone, had a sofa in her cell and received other freedoms denied to most of the inmates. She claims that Grassaree knew about the coercion but, rather than stopping Phillips and Clark, told her to use the cell phone to send him explicit texts and pornographic images. She said other deputies, who the suit does not name, would also inappropriately touch her.
Reed is requesting a jury trial to determine damages.
“Reed did not voluntarily consent to the sexual contacts with Defendants nor the sexual touching, videos or photographs,” the complaint says. “Reed, as an incarcerated pre-trial detainee, could not consent to the sexual contacts which occurred.”
Though the county has not yet filed a formal response in federal court, Noxubee County Board of Supervisors Attorney Chris Hemphill said the county’s insurance company is aware of the allegations.
“At this point, we are still trying to determine all the allegations ourselves,” he said. “… I’m sure we’ll be discussing it at our next board meeting.”
He added there may be a response from the sheriff’s office and jail in terms of policies implemented, but that those will largely be up to newly elected Sheriff Tommy Roby, who took office in January. When reached by The Dispatch, Roby declined to comment, saying he couldn’t discuss matters under investigation.
The Dispatch was unable to reach Grassaree.
Details of Reed’s charge
Haywood, 28, was shot while working at the Local Express Station on Jackson Street in Macon and died two days later at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. Reed and three other suspects were arrested and charged with capital murder.
However, District Attorney Scott Colom requested Reed and the other suspects be released on bond last fall, after investigators uncovered information suggesting the four of them were miles away from the murder at the time it occurred. Among evidence gathered in the case, Colom said, is a cell phone with voice recordings of the suspects rapping and making music, and those recordings are time-stamped within about five minutes after the shooting occurred.
Colom stressed at the time that Reed and the other three suspects — Jonathan Shumaker and brothers Justin and Joshua Williams — are all still suspects in the case. However, Shumaker had filed a speedy trial motion, and Colom felt the state was unprepared to successfully prove he had committed the murder. Instead of going to trial, he worked with the suspects’ lawyers to have them all released on bond in exchange for continuing their trials while investigators look for further evidence.
Reed’s attorney, Shane McLaughlin of Tupelo, is out of his office until next week and did not return an email from The Dispatch by press time. However, the complaint refers to Reed’s incarceration as “undeserved.”
Reed’s next court appearance in Noxubee County Circuit Court is scheduled for next week.
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