FORT VALLEY, Ga. — A former Fort Valley State University police officer was arrested Friday, months after the GBI opened an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against a student.
Wilbur Bryant, 52, turned himself in at the Peach County Sheriff’s Office on two counts of violating his oath as an officer and one count of bribery, both felonies. Additionally, he was arrested on a misdemeanor simple battery charge.
The now-former student reported Bryant to the Peach County Sheriff’s Office, which requested the GBI’s assistance in April.
At some point, the student “had contact with” the officer, according to GBI Special Agent in Charge Todd Crosby.
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“During the investigation it was learned Bryant went to the student’s residence some time after the incident, while in uniform, and made physical contact with the student without her consent,” the spokesman said. “After this contact, Bryant called the student and made numerous explicit sexual comments while on the phone.”
Bryant resigned from the police department April 21, two days before the GBI started its probe.
About the same time the agency opened its investigation into Bryant, the GBI launched a wide-ranging inquiry into the 123-year-old historically black public university, which is about 105 miles south of downtown Atlanta in Middle Georgia. Allegations surrounded employee misconduct and hazing involving the nation’s oldest black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
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Computers were seized and the sorority’s national office initiated an investigation of its own.
MORE: Sorority ramps up investigation of Fort Valley State chapter
The issues came to light during a Board of Regents visit to Fort Valley. A student mentioned the issues to a regent, who reported them to the state attorney general’s office. That office directed the GBI to open a criminal investigation.
Alecia Johnson, a former Fort Valley State employee involved with the sorority, resigned as the university’s special events director one day after the GBI first spoke publicly about the investigation.
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The status of that investigation was unclear Friday.
[ This article was written by Chelsea Prince, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ]