DeKalb County will pay $250,000 in damages and attorney's fees after a federal jury found Sheriff Melody Maddox liable for creating a hostile work environment for female officers at the DeKalb County Jail.

The jury returned its verdict Tuesday, July 21. The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, which operates the jail on Memorial Drive in Decatur, provides law enforcement services across the county, including in Dunwoody and Brookhaven.

Six former officers filed the federal lawsuit in 2022, alleging Maddox failed to address what the complaint described as "an endemic, well-known culture of sexual harassment of female staff by inmates." According to the lawsuit, male inmates performed sexual acts in front of the officers, threatened to sexually assault them, and roamed out of their cells through broken locks without authorization.

One plaintiff who worked at the jail for 16 years and served under three sheriffs stated in the complaint that the hostile conditions were the worst under Maddox.

One former officer, who asked not to be identified for fear of losing her current law enforcement job, told WSB-TV she was forced to resign in 2022. She said the verdict was about more than money.

"The most hurtful part of the whole situation is the narrative they was trying to push, 'It's part of the job.' It's not part of your job to be sexually harassed," she told WSB-TV reporter Tyisha Fernandes.

James Radford, the plaintiffs' attorney, told the Daily Mail his team worked for years to build the case and that DeKalb County "fought us hard" throughout the litigation. He said the county paid the $250,000, though the specific budget account remains unclear. Maddox declined to say which fund was used.

The Sheriff's Office issued a written statement declining to comment, saying Maddox "has no comment on the case, including the additional questions." Maddox also declined to answer questions about whether broken cell door locks have been repaired. The office has not announced an appeal or a corrective action plan.

During the trial, before the verdict, Maddox testified that staffing shortages and ongoing infrastructure problems at the jail contributed to conditions there.

The verdict comes during a difficult stretch for the Sheriff's Office. On July 18, the agency fired and charged Sgt. Kabiru Salawu with felony violation of oath of office and misdemeanor misuse of license plate data after an internal investigation found he used Flock Safety cameras for unauthorized purposes. In December 2025, three inmates escaped from the same jail. Maddox told reporters at the time that it was "an aging facility that's deteriorating right before our eyes."

Residents who wish to file a complaint against the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office can contact the Office of Professional Standards at (404) 298-8125 or [email protected]. The office is at 4415 Memorial Drive, Decatur, open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.