A federal grand jury has indicted a former Mobile County Sheriff's Office corrections officer on a civil rights charge stemming from an encounter with a person in his custody. Timothy Lee Scarbrough, who was fired from the agency after a state sodomy arrest, now faces a federal count that carries a possible life sentence.
The indictment, filed October 28 in the Southern District of Alabama, charges Scarbrough with deprivation of rights under color of law, according to NBC 15 WPMI. A federal grand jury alleges that Scarbrough violated the person's right to bodily integrity while acting under color of law, per the same report.
According to the indictment, Scarbrough performed oral sex on a person identified only as R.T. on September 4, 2024, without consent and without a legitimate law enforcement purpose, the station reports. The deprivation-of-rights charge falls under a federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 242, that the U.S. Department of Justice identifies as the criminal law enforcing constitutional limits on conduct by law enforcement officers.
From New Hire to Firing in Under a Year
Scarbrough began working for the Mobile County Sheriff's Office in October 2023, the station's report notes. Less than a year later, he was arrested on a state first-degree sodomy charge and fired immediately, according to a statement from the sheriff's office cited by the outlet.
Alabama's first-degree sodomy statute, codified at Section 13A-6-63 of the Code of Alabama, was the basis for that earlier state arrest. WKRG reported that Scarbrough began working for the agency in October 2023 and was arrested, charged and terminated in 2024; the federal indictment was filed in 2026.
What Comes Next
The federal charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to five years of supervised release, per the reporting. An indictment is merely an accusation, and Scarbrough is presumed innocent unless proven guilty, the outlet notes.
Federal civil rights indictments against corrections officers accused of sexually assaulting people in their custody have surfaced elsewhere in Alabama. A correctional officer at Federal Correctional Institution Aliceville was separately charged with eight counts of deprivation of rights under color of law arising from the alleged sexual assault of seven female inmates, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
