CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – A woman who accused a Clay County deputy of trying to coerce sex out of her and then sexually assaulting her in 2016 filed a civil rights lawsuit against him this year, News4Jax has learned.
The woman said Deputy Eliseo Adams, who has since resigned from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, arrested her on a shoplifting charge at a Walmart on Blanding Boulevard in January 2016.
She said Adams told her he could have the charge dropped “if they can make an agreement.” She said he flirted with her, saying he recognized her from a previous call, calling her cute, and saying he’d be in touch when he eventually let her go.
She said he called her later and asked what she was wearing, then called another time the same day and told her he had her house alarm key and implied she could get it back if “an arrangement can be made.”
DOCUMENT: Civil rights lawsuit filed against former Clay County deputy
In another phone call, Adams told her to meet him at Ridgeview High School to get the key back, but when she met him there, he demanded she give him her phone and then he erased the records of his calls, the woman said in the complaint.
He left without giving her the key and then called her again and said he would bring it to her house, the woman says in the complaint.
According to an Internal Affairs report filed after the woman reported the incident to the Sheriff’s Office, Adams told his supervisor that when they met at the school, the woman showed him nude photos, convinced him to come to her house, and gave him a key fob so he could say he was bringing it by in case anyone asked.
The woman says in her lawsuit that when Adams showed up at the house, he did give her the key when she answered the door, but then he forced his way into her home.
What happened next is blacked out in the lawsuit document, but according to the IA report, the woman told investigators that Adams forced her at gunpoint into her bedroom, performed a sex act on her and then forced her to perform a sex act on him.
In the IA report, Adams claimed the woman had been enticing him, that the sexual encounter was consensual and that he never pulled his gun, but admitted he was in uniform and that he’d driven to her home in his patrol car. He said he was off duty at the time.
Adams was never charged with sexual assault but the allegation of improper conduct (sex while on duty) was sustained and he eventually resigned.
The shoplifting charge against the woman was dropped.
Now the woman is seeking damages in a lawsuit against Adams, which also names suspended Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels.
The lawsuit accuses Daniels of negligence, abuse of power and failure to properly train deputies.
It is common to name a sheriff in a lawsuit against someone under their command. In this case, Daniels did not become sheriff of Clay County until November 2016, seven months after the IA investigation into the assault allegation was completed.
But Daniels was head of the department in January of this year when the civil rights lawsuit was filed in Clay County court.
Daniels’ lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the suit.