WAYCROSS, Ga. – A former case manager at the Unison Behavioral Health Clinic in Georgia faces a second degree charge of inappropriate sexual contact by an employee or agent following allegations made by a client.

Waycross, 30-year-old Lydia Beth Deloach recently reported to authorities after an arrest warrant was issued against her.

According to investigators, the Deloach case began back in August when a Waycross detective was called to the Unison Behavioral Health Clinic to speak to an employee about allegations of sexual misconduct.

According to the incident report, Deloach was taken on administrative leave after Unison Administrators received a complaint from one of Deloach’s customers. Hours after Deloach was on leave, she resigned.

News4Jax spoke only to the client, who said he had been directed by a judge to seek help at the behavioral clinic after he was convicted of theft. According to Unison, Deloach was the case manager assigned to the man who later filed the complaint.

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News4Jax does not name the man because the police have identified him as a victim of criminal sexual misconduct.

“I’m not the man I used to be. I feel bit by bit, Lydia broke me. She used her position at Unison to introduce me into a sexual relationship. She threatened me with arrest, “the alleged victim told News4Jax.

Deloach is also a former Georgia probation officer. According to the victim, she not only verbally threatened physical harm, but also threatened to call former colleagues to revoke his parole if he failed to comply with her sexual demands. The victim also told News4Jax that Deloach verbally threatened to tamper with his clinic notes.

“She would have gone in and changed my case notes. At that point, I would have broken two parole conditions and would have been arrested, ”said the victim.

According to the victim, the unwanted sexual relationship lasted months until a specific incident at their home in which the victim said Deloach went too far.

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“She wanted to commit sodomy against me and said it was a reverse role of power,” said the victim.

After the incident, he filed a complaint with the Unison administrators, not knowing if they would believe his story. When police became involved, the alleged victim was able to provide text messages from Deloach, as well as explicit images that matched his story, according to the police report.

Unison released a written statement:

Unison takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and is referring all such reports for investigation in accordance with the mandates and guidelines of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

Unison Behavioral Health Clinic

The Georgia Department of Community Supervision also released a statement:

When the Department of Community Supervision became aware of this crime, they conducted an employment history review of Ms. DeLoach. It was found that Ms. DeLoach severed her job in our department in July 2019. This is about a year before the offense occurred, according to the dates on the arrest warrant. There was also no documented interaction in our case management system between Ms. DeLoach and the person who was under supervision during her employment. DCS employees are required to adhere to higher standards of conduct than is normally the case in general because of the department’s role as a law enforcement and criminal justice agency. Accordingly, we will work closely with our law enforcement partners as they further investigate this matter.

Georgia Department of Community Supervision

Ken Jefferson, a former sex crimes investigator with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, said this type of alleged crime is more common than people might think, especially when the violator has something about the victim as leverage.

“It is not uncommon for a perpetrator to be a woman and the victim a man. Men don’t usually say anything about it. They don’t report it for some reason, ”Jefferson said.

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Jefferson also said that despite allegations of wrongdoing, the police couldn’t get a judge to sign an arrest warrant for Deloach unless they had a probable reason. Investigators determined the likely cause based on the victim’s statements combined with text messages and photos. Jefferson said once the police had all of these items in place, it was easy to pinpoint Deloach, and the victim had a relationship that didn’t seem mutual.

As for the victim, he told News4Jax that any man who faces a similar circumstance or knows someone who is in the same situation must report it.

“Get on and tell someone,” said the victim. “The police, a pastor, or anyone. And just know that there are people who will fight for you when you need them to fight for you. I didn’t believe anyone there who would fight for me, and I was wrong. “

News4Jax went to an address listed as Deloach’s home to see if she would tell her side of the story after spending $ 7,500 on her jail release, but she was unavailable for comment.

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