July 27, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
Two women who worked for the food service provider at the DeKalb County Jail were named in sealed indictments by the Grand Jury this week charging them with having sexual contact with an inmate.
29-year-old Jessica Ann Perez and 50-year-old Edna Viola Pentz both of Underhill Road, Smithville are each under a $10,000 bond and will be arraigned in DeKalb County Criminal Court on August 7. They have both been terminated from the company.
The women were not county employees and did not work for the sheriff’s department. Again, their employment was with the provider contracted with the county to operate the food service at the jail preparing meals for the inmates.
The indictments against the two allege that “between the dates of March 1, 2023 and April 11, 2023 in DeKalb County and before the finding of this indictment, Jessica Ann Perez and Edna Viola Pentz did engage in sexual contact with a prisoner or inmate who is in custody at a penal institution (DeKalb County Jail)”.
According to the sheriff’s department, this case involved two inmates and the alleged sexual contact between these women and them amounted to touching or oral acts but not intercourse.