MOULTRIE — A jailer at the Colquitt County Jail is now herself jailed on multiple charges stemming from a sexual relationship with an inmate.

Colquitt County sheriff’s investigators said Thursday that Bernis Evette Singletary, 40, 3266 Old Adel Road, admitted Wednesday after a brief internal investigation that she had sex with inmate Nicholas McClendon, 24, two or three times in the control room during his incarceration. Investigator Shannon Hart said she also admitted to transporting marijuana for him a couple of times as well, plus also allegedly brought him cigarettes and a Subway sandwich across guard lines.

Singletary, wife and mother of two, faces charges of sexual assault, marijuana possession with intent to distribute, violation of oath of office and crossing guard lines with contraband. All are felony charges.

Sexual assault alone carries from 10 to 30 years prison time. Although the sexual contact appears at this point to be consensual, Sheriff Al Whittington said, Georgia law states that “a person commits sexual assault when such person has supervisory or disciplinary authority over another person and such person engages in sexual contact with that other person who is in the custody of law.”

Singletary was the sole officer in charge of the pod where McClendon was housed. Other officers come in and out of the area at random, but Singletary was pretty much alone during her eight-hour shift, CCSO Operations Captain Julius Cox said. Staff shortages don’t allow for more than one officer to monitor a pod at a single time, he explained.

“She controls the locks in that office in which she’s sitting,” Whittington said.

In Georgia, male correctional officers are not allowed to supervise female inmates, but a female jailer is allowed to supervise male prisoners, the sheriff said.

“She was working in an all-male building,” Cox said.

There’s no indication so far that Singletary knew McClendon prior to his incarceration. Singletary’s downward spiral began, the sheriff said, when she allegedly agreed to smuggle in contraband cigarettes to McClendon.

“The inmate threatened to expose her for that, and she was afraid that she would lose her job, so therefore one thing led to another. ... I guess she became somewhat enamored with him. She became infatuated with him to a certain degree, and he talked his way — she opened the door for him to come out,” Whittington said, recounting Singletary’s statement.

McClendon was in the Colquitt County Jail from Oct. 9, 2005, to April 20, 2006, when he was transferred to the Colquitt County Correctional Institution (CCCI), Cox said. On Nov. 17, he was back in the county jail after a court conviction, and was housed there until his transfer into the state penitentiary system Tuesday.

He was sentenced in Colquitt County Superior Court to 20 years for aggravated battery. While incarcerated at the CCCI, McClendon punched another inmate in the eye, rendering him temporarily blind.

Investigators traced telephone calls from McClendon while he was at the CCCI to Singletary’s cell phone number beginning in August, Cox said. Also, commissary records indicate that Singletary allegedly had brought McClendon money while he was housed at the CCCI, he said.

No inmates or other witnesses have come forth in this ongoing case, and there were no security tapes recorded in the area of the alleged offenses during that time they allegedly occurred, Cox said.

Jail administrators said Singletary appeared well-qualified for the job and interested in a career in law enforcement. She was taking criminal justice classes at Moultrie Technical College when she was hired on Dec. 1, 2005, Cox noted.

Usually, background checks, drug screens and physicals are administered to prospective jailers. Polygraphs also are used to determine a person’s honesty, he said.

“We were in between polygraphers when we hired her, but she had no kind of a record,” Whittington said.

The investigation will continue by the CCSO and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the sheriff said. Charges have yet to come against McClendon, and he has yet to be interviewed in this case.

“We’ve still got a long way to go on this,” Hart said.

“There’s an active investigation proceeding forth at this time by us and the GBI, but this is something we were not going to hold off on until an investigation is concluded, because the public needs to know,” Whittington said.

The remaining correctional staff has been briefed on the case and are instructed to be extra vigilant against escape or contraband, especially during the holidays, Cox said.

“Nothing in her defense, but inmates are very manipulative. They spend 24 hours a day trying to figure out a way to manipulate you, and he’s sort of one to do it,” he said.

“We’re all still human beings,” Whittington said. “An officer is a human being. These inmates are human beings, but we have urged all the other employees to not let these individuals ruin their careers or their lives, because one foolish mistake will certainly do both.”