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By CHRIS PORTER • Daily Tribune Staff
BURNET - A former Burnet County Sheriff’s Office jailer could face up to 20 years in prison after a female inmate accused him of sexual assault at the Burnet County Jail, officials said Monday.
Thomas Joe Pheifer, 48, was arrested Aug. 29 on charges of sexual assault, according to a Sheriff’s Office press release. He was released later that day on a $10,000 bond.
Pheifer, who had worked at the jail for about two years, was fired Aug. 13 due to administrative policy violations unrelated to the alleged assault, according to Sheriff Joe Pollock.
Pollock said jail administrators received a complaint from a female inmate Aug. 1, adding an investigation by the Texas Rangers led to a warrant for Pheifer’s arrest.
“He was already under investigation when he was fired,” Pollock said Monday. Officials didn’t specify the nature of the policy violations that led to Pheifer’s termination.
Pollock said there were no indications of prior assaults in Pheifer’s record, adding each jailer is subject to an extensive background check before he or she is hired.
“You have to have a jailer’s license to work at the jail, and they can’t get a license if they have a criminal record,” he said.
Female inmates, on average, make up about 25 percent of the jail’s population at any given time, though Pollock said several are shipped to jails in other counties to ease overcrowding in the Burnet County Jail.
The Sheriff’s Office employs about two dozen jailers, Pollock said.
Pheifer remains free on bond pending a review of the case by a Burnet County grand jury later this month.
Sexual assault is a second degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in state prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
chris@thepicayune.com
Ex-jailer charged with
sexually assaulting inmate
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