East Central Reporter

The Edgar County Jail is once again making a name for itself under the leadership of Sheriff Jeff Wood. The Illinois State Police are investigating the alleged videotaping by a corrections officer of an inmate on the toilet engaged in some kind of lewd act and then posting it online to a TikTok account.

We understand the County’s HR representative is also aware of the allegations, and terminations and/or suspensions may come as soon as today. 

This information has been kept from the county board for at least a week. A Freedom of Information Act request was submitted to the Sheriff for the following: Copy of all complaints, reports, communications, or other information of Deputies, Corrections Officers, or others allegedly filming, taking photos, or videoing prisoners or anyone else using the toilet or in the toilet areas, and then allegedly posting such video/photos on social media or the internet. 

We expect the FOIA response will be denied as the matter is currently under criminal investigation however certain records are in fact subject to FOIA regardless of any ongoing investigation. 

This is not the first scandal to plague the Edgar County Jail under Sheriff Wood’s watch. When an employee was terminated in relation to alleged fudging of her timecards, Wood commented that “it’s not like we all haven’t fudged our time sheets from time to time.“ 

Articles are here and here. Then there is the custodial sexual misconduct alleged against corrections officers (here) which went unprosecuted by former State’s Attorney, and now-Judge Mark Isaf. Wood was also found to have violated a citizen’s civil rights which lead to the county paying a $350,000.00 settlement as covered in this article. 

Wood is seeking re-election as the County Sheriff. We will update you with a new article once we get responses back to numerous FOIA requests.

Read the original story here.