Former SC probation officer sexually assaulted women he supervised, two lawsuits say
Two more women are suing their former South Carolina probation officer, claiming he used his authority to sexually assault them in a state agency office.
The two women, identified as Jane Doe 4 and 5, filed the lawsuits against the South Carolina Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole Services and its former officer George Yeldell in South Carolina federal court on Feb. 4 and 8. The women are represented by Columbia attorney Tyler Bailey.
“The SC Dept. of Probation, Pardon, and Parole Services was grossly negligent in failing to properly train and supervise Agent Yeldell, negligence that has caused significant negative and permanent impact on my clients’ lives,” Bailey said.
In documents filed with the court, Bailey wrote that Yeldell “used the resources and abused the power and authority of his office to sexually abuse, harass, assault, inappropriately touch, and/or rape” women.
Yeldell denied the allegations through his lawyer Charles Grose in court filings.
The probation and parole department said it can’t comment on the case because of the pending litigation.
Court documents described the women’s claims.
Jane Doe 4 showed up to the Aiken County headquarters of the state department to start her probation on Feb. 14, 2019. There, she met Yeldell in his office. After closing the door, Yeldell groped her and ran his hands through her hair while making sexual comments, according to the suit. Yeldell “implied that her probation would run smoothly if she complied with his unwanted sexual advances,” the suit said. Twice later in the year, Yeldell rubbed his genitals on the woman.
The court filing of Jane Doe 5 made similar allegations.
Jane Doe 5 was on probation and had a meeting with Yeldell in August 2019 at the department’s Aiken County headquarters. He closed her in his office and asked in crass terms if she would have sex with him or perform oral sex, the suit said. He implied she could get off probation early if she gave him what he wanted. Later in the month, Yeldell coerced Jane Doe 5 into performing oral sex, according to the suit.
The women said they feared that Yeldell would send them to prison and make their lives difficult if they reported his actions, according to the claims.
The women are also suing department director Jerry Adger and Yeldell’s superviser, Ashley Finch, saying they failed to take any action against Yeldell though they knew he had a “propensity to harm female offenders he was supervising.”
Previous allegations
For months, the department and Yeldell have been embroiled in similar civil lawsuits. Yeldell also faces a criminal charge connected to the alleged assaults.
In November 2020, three other women with similar claims sued Yeldell and the department.
The women claim that between 2017 and 2019, Yeldell groped them, tried to forced them into sex, kissed them and made other unwanted sexual advances.
In one case, Yeldell said “come on, you’ve been locked up for a while and I know you want some...” to a woman released on parole and under his supervision, according to a court filing. Later, he visited the woman’s house under the guise of an official meeting. He made her take him to her bedroom, where he shoved her onto the bed. She resisted his assault. He said that her time on parole “could be really easy or really hard,” the filing said.
One of the women told the department’s supervisors of Yeldell’s sexual misconduct in August 2019., according to a claim.
In response to the November lawsuits, Yeldell and the department denied the allegations.
The department fired him in October 2019, the agency said in 2020.
When informed of Yeldell’s firing by a department official, a woman who was under his supervision cried because she wouldn’t have to fight off his advances anymore, a claim said.
Bailey, the lawyer representing the women, said he hopes the parole and probation department will “implement policies that prevent this from happening to any other women in the future and do all that is in their power to make the women sexually assaulted and abused while under their supervision whole.”
He expects more women will come forward with claims against Yeldell.
In all five lawsuits, the women asked for a jury trial. They’re asking for Yeldell to be punished financially and to pay them an undisclosed amount if the jury finds in their favor.
In May 2020, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division charged Yeldell with misconduct in office. Arrest warrants accused Yeldell of abusing his power to have a relationship with a woman he supervised as an agent of the parole and probation department.
That charge is still pending. If guilty, he could be imprisoned for 10 years.