Former Richmond County Sheriff’s Office deputy Demondre Mahoney says he is finally speaking publicly about the ordeal that ended his law-enforcement career, cost him his home and car, and kept him in jail for nearly a year before the charges against him were dismissed for lack of evidence.
Mahoney posted his account Tuesday on Facebook, saying a photo memory of his Mustang “struck a nerve” and prompted him to describe what he calls “a long silent battle” that began in June 2023.
The Arrest: Mahoney joined the Sheriff’s Office in 2021, starting as a jailer before moving to road patrol. On June 4, 2023, investigators with the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division alleged they had probable cause to believe he brought contraband – specifically fentanyl – into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center.
He was arrested as he was leaving work and charged with giving convicts articles without consent of the warden and violation of oath by public officer, according to the press release at the time. He was fired the next day.
An indictment handed down the following month accused Mahoney of bringing fentanyl into the jail “to give to Yelena Buckner, an inmate,” without the knowledge or consent of Sheriff Richard Roundtree.
Mahoney’s Account: In his post, Mahoney wrote that the incident began after he responded to a fight in a jail pod where an inmate requested baby powder for a rash, an item he says inmates are permitted to have and which is stocked in the jail. He says he retrieved the powder, left it at the tower window for another jailer to distribute, and returned to his assigned area.
“When I left for the day I was arrested on my way out of the jail,” he wrote. “No one told me what had happened till I was cuffed to a chair.”
He said investigators told him the powder he had retrieved was fentanyl and that “they had concrete evidence proving I did” bring drugs into the jail. Mahoney said that while he initially heard there was one container, “somehow the one container grew into 3 and totaled 604 grams.”
He remained in jail for “almost 10 months,” he said, adding that his bond was denied repeatedly and that he was labeled a “menace to society.”
During that time, Mahoney says his apartment was “searched and destroyed,” valuable items were missing or broken, and his doors had been left open. He also alleges that his Mustang vanished from the investigative lot and was later found at a body shop near his mother’s home “in pieces,” with extensive mechanical damage.
Mahoney wrote that he rejected an offer to plead to a misdemeanor — “I ever so kindly said hell no to” — and continued fighting the case.
Charges Dismissed: On Dec. 5, 2023, Superior Court Judge Ashley Wright dismissed the case after prosecutors informed the court that new information unavailable to the Grand Jury showed the substance recovered from the jail was not a controlled substance. (Dismissal document is shown at bottom.)
According to the dismissal order, the powder tested as baby powder. Baby powder is allowed in the detention center and can be purchased by inmates. Prosecutors told the court they could not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, even on a misdemeanor. The violation-of-oath count depended on the drug-related charge and could not be sustained on its own.
With that determination, all charges were dismissed.
Aftermath and Fallout: Although cleared, Mahoney said the dismissal did not immediately restore normalcy. For some time after the ruling, he wrote, official records still showed pending charges, making it “almost impossible to get a job.”
Retrieving his Mustang required over $10,000 in storage costs, he said, and after regaining possession, it was repossessed because he had been unable to make payments while jailed.
Mahoney also described personal fallout: Friends who stopped speaking to him, family members who “switched up,” and persistent rumors.
“The crazy thing is that I believed that the justice system would do its thing and everything would work out,” he wrote, “but I was left to pick up the pieces.”
He says the experience contributed to depression and anxiety, for which he was later medicated.
A New Beginning: Mahoney ended his post on a note of resilience, saying that while some people abandoned him, others supported him throughout the ordeal. He has since bought his first home and says he is working to rebuild.
“I was ready to finally share my part and show the ending that the news media wouldn’t speak about,” he wrote. He thanked those who stood by him and delivered a blunt message to those who didn’t: “F** YOU AND YA GRANDMA MAY SHE REST IN S**T!!”
