WAYCROSS, Ga. – A now-former Unison Behavioral Health Clinic case manager in Georgia is facing a second-degree felony charge of improper sexual contact by an employee or agent after accusations from a client.
Lydia Beth Deloach, 30, of Waycross turned herself in to authorities recently after a warrant was issued for her arrest.
According to investigators, the case against Deloach began back in August when a Waycross detective was called to Unison Behavioral Health Clinic to speak with an employee in reference to allegations of sexual misconduct.
According to the incident report, Deloach had been placed on administrative leave after Unison Administrators received a complaint from one of Deloach’s clients. Hours after Deloach was placed on leave, she resigned.
News4Jax spoke exclusively with the client who said he was ordered by a judge to seek help at the behavioral clinic following his felony conviction for theft. According to Unison, Deloach was the case manager who was assigned to the man who later filed the complaint.
News4Jax is not naming the man because he has been identified by police as a victim of criminal sexual misconduct.
“I’m not the man I used to be. I feel piece-by-piece, Lydia broke me down. She used her position at Unison to lead me into a sexual relationship. She used threats of me being arrested,” the alleged victim told News4Jax.
Deloach is also a former Georgia probation officer and, according to the victim, she not only verbally threatened bodily harm but also threatened to call former colleagues to have his probation revoked if he didn’t comply with her sexual demands. The victim also told News4Jax, Deloach verbally threatened to tamper with his clinic notes.
“She would have gone in and altered my case notes. At that time, I would have been in violation of two probations and I would have been arrested,” the victim said.
According to the victim, the unwanted sexual relationship lasted for months until a specific incident at her home in which the victim said Deloach went too far.
“She was wanting to commit sodomy against me and the way she explained it was that it was a reverse role of power,” the victim said.
After the incident, he filed a complaint with Unison administrators, not knowing if they would believe his story. By the time police got involved, the alleged victim was able to provide text messages from Deloach as well as explicit pictures that were consistent with his story, according to the police report.
Unison released a written statement:
The Georgia Department of Community Supervision also released a statement:
Ken Jefferson, a former sex crimes investigator with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, said this kind of alleged crime happens more often than people may think, especially when the violator has something over the victim as leverage.
“It’s not rare where you see an offender being a female and the victim being a male. Men typically don’t say anything about it. They don’t report it for whatever reason,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson also said despite allegations of wrongdoing, police could not get a judge to sign off on a warrant for Deloach’s arrest unless they had probable cause. Investigators established probable cause based on the victim’s statements combined with text messages and photos. Jefferson said once police had all those elements in place, it was easy to determine Deloach and the victim had a relationship that did not appear to be mutual.
As for the victim, he told News4Jax that any man who is facing a similar circumstance or know someone who is in the same predicament needs to report it.
“Step up and tell somebody,” the victim said. “The police, a pastor or anybody. And just know that there are people who will fight for you at the time you need them to fight for you. I didn’t believe there anyone who would fight for me and I was wrong.”
News4Jax did go to an address listed as Deloach’s home to see if she would tell her side of the story after she posted a $7,500 to get out of jail, but she was not available for comment.