A police officer has been charged with a felony after he was accused of sexually assaulting a prisoner in handcuffs.
Officer Vernon Wolford was charged with sexual battery, after investigators said he offered a woman freedom in exchange for sex.
A woman was arrested, handcuffed, and put in an Obetz police cruiser on Nov. 10, and then driven to a private drive off Groveport Road.
A search warrant revealed investigators believe Wolford stopped the cruiser, walked around the car, and asked the female prisoner "You want to go home?"
Investigators said the woman asked to be un-handcuffed but the officer refused - and that is when they said she performed a sex act on the officer.
The warrant revealed that investigators found DNA evidence on the prisoner's tennis shoes, Kocot reported.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said by law a prisoner cannot give consent to have sex with an arresting officer.
"Some instances, such as statutory rape, teachers have sex with students it may be so called consensual - again, that's all sexual battery because of the nature of the relationship," O'Brien said.
Prosecutors said Wolford did not take the prisoner home, but instead he took her to the Franklin County Jail, where the woman told her story to deputies.
Wolford has been working as a full time officer for a year. He was placed on administrative leave during the investigation.
The charge of sexual battery is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Wolford is scheduled to be in court in January for a plea hearing.
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