Former Pender jail guard pleads guilty to sex charges
Pickett
A former Pender County detention officer, who served at the county jail, pleaded guilty May 25 in Superior Court to charges stemming from a sex offense and was sentenced to 16-20 months.
The sentence against Sherwood Anthony Pickett of Maple Hill was suspended for 48 months. He was placed on intensive probation and ordered into a sex offender treatment program, according to Pender County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Scott Lawson.
Pickett was arrested in July 2009 and was charged with extortion, attempted sex offense by a custodian and solicitation for crimes against nature. The arrest followed a week-long investigation.
According to investigators, Pickett was working at the jail when a man reported to the detention center to serve the weekend in jail, but was turned away. The man had been serving time on weekends for several months.
When Pickett’s shift ended about an hour later, according to the charges, Pickett went to the man’s house, seeking sexual favors. In exchange, it is reported, he offered to manipulate detention records to make it seem as if the man had spent the weekend in jail, something he did not have the authority to do.
