A veteran Richmond County jailer is out of a job after having an inappropriate relationship with an inmate.
Adding to Sheriff Richard Rountree’s long list of vacancies, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Merit System Board upheld the termination Friday of jailer Diamonte O’Neal. O’Neal had been at the Webster Detention Center since 2018.
Capt. Joel Danko testified at the hearing the jail received information about an inmate having an inappropriate relationship with a jailer. Monitoring the inmate phone revealed she and O’Neal had spoken on the phone about a dozen times during the month of July, he said.
“You could tell as the phone calls progressed, there was a relationship building,” said Danko, who oversees jail operations.
O’Neal provided money to the inmate by using the Cash app to send it to her relative, he said.
Sheriff’s Col. Calvin Chew testified he and office leadership determined the relationship was a fireable offense.
“When you’re working in a jail, one thing you cannot do is compromise yourself,” Chew said.
“Sometimes people make mistakes. They might do one phone call. But this gentleman who’s a veteran in our jail, who had at least five years in, should have known that you can’t have this inappropriate relationship.”
O’Neal told the board he met the inmate at the jail and was trying to help her.
“Everything these gentlemen said was true,” he said. “My intention wasn’t for it to go that way.”
O’Neal denied having physical contact with the inmate.
“I really love this job and took great pride in it,” he said. “This is something I’m ashamed of.”
Augusta Senior Staff Attorney Zena McClain-Haymon, who conducted the hearing, said O’Neal was previously disciplined for using unnecessary force by slamming an inmate to the floor and repeatedly punching him.
Simply being fired is a less than what O’Neal was facing she said.
“The sheriff could have elected to charge him criminally,” she said.
O’Neal brings to close to 20 the number of jail staff fired, arrested or both in the last year-and-a-half, and to almost 40 the number of sheriff’s personnel fired for committing alleged crimes.
The jail needs about 40 jailers at all times and is currently about half-staffed, according to Chief Deputy Patrick Clayton.
