The Associated Press

ARAPAHO, Okla. — A former Custer County jail inmate’s sketch of former Sheriff Mike Burgess’ home may be some of the best evidence federal prosecutors have against the lawman.

Burgess resigned from the position he’d held since 1994 shortly before he was charged last week with 35 felony counts for allegedly running a sex-slave operation at the jail. The charges included 14 counts of second-degree rape and seven counts of forcible oral sodomy.

The inmate, Joy Leigh Mason, has accused Burgess of threatening to kick her out of the Custer County Drug Court program if she didn’t have a sexual relationship with him.

Mason told state investigators several sexual encounters took place inside the rural home of Burgess, who was a voting member of the Drug Court Team.

“Mason provided a rough sketch of the interior of Burgess’ residence which included details that could only be known to someone that had been inside of the residence,” according to a search warrant affidavit filed in January by Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Elizabeth Green.

Mason, 40, made her allegation May 21, when she was jailed after failing a drug screen. Court records show Mason then “disclosed that she had been having sex with Burgess and that he had promised her that he would protect her and keep her from going back to jail.”

According to records filed in Custer County court, as Mason sat in jail that night, OSBI agent Joe Ferrero learned that Burgess allegedly telephoned Cimberly LaDawn Taylor, who is Mason’s cousin and a fellow drug court participant. Taylor advised Burgess that Mason had evidence which she “believed would have Sheriff Burgess’ DNA.”

“Sheriff Burgess asked Ms. Taylor if she would go to Ms. Mason’s residence and obtain the evidence,” Ferrero reported in his affidavit. “At that time Sheriff Burgess promised Ms. Taylor that if she would get the DNA evidence that Ms. Mason had, he would get Ms. Taylor’s brother out of prison.”

When contacted by The Oklahoman, Taylor declined to say whether she obliged Burgess, adding only that her brother never received any such release. “I have no further comments,” Taylor said.

District Attorney Dennis Smith ordered an investigation of the allegations.

Burgess and his staff were questioned. Some of the staffers were identified in a federal civil lawsuit filed in October on behalf of Mason and 12 other former Custer County inmates. Jail Administrator Jerry Wood and jailer Aaron Rivers are still working for the county.

Former inmate Ivette Figueroa accused Wood of sexual battery in the civil lawsuit. In the complaint, Figueroa said Wood pressed “her body to his, touching her sexual organs and pressing his erect penis on her body.”

Rivers is accused of requiring inmate Regenia Oldbear to “engage in sexual touching of him” in May 2006 to avoid punishment.

Others accused in the lawsuit were former deputy Duane Richardson, ex-jailer Jim Cook and former jailer Brandon Turney.