A Pasco County Sheriff's deputy who worked inside the county's juvenile detention center is now locked up in the county jail, accused of raping a teenage girl he knew from his job there. Thomas Wayne Black allegedly picked the girl up from a St. Pete restaurant after her release from custody and drove her to his Wesley Chapel home, where authorities say he assaulted her.
According to Tampa Bay 28, Black formed a relationship with the victim while she was detained at the Pasco County Juvenile Detention Center from August 24, 2026 through September 14, 2026. The outlet reports that once she was released on September 14, the teen contacted Black and asked him to pick her up from a restaurant in St. Pete.
Deputy Allegedly Knew She Had Fled Supervision
Officials say Black was aware the victim was a runaway and knew she had removed her court-issued ankle monitor, according to the same report. Despite that, authorities allege Black drove her from St. Pete to his home in Wesley Chapel, where he engaged in oral and vaginal sexual acts with her, per the station's account.
The report notes that Black showed up five hours late to work the next day, an absence investigators later tied to the alleged encounter. When questioned, Black never denied the allegations but avoided discussing the incident, the outlet reports.
Charges and Custody Status
Black was charged with two counts of sexual battery or rape of a victim between the ages of 12 and 17, along with one count of interference with custody, per the same account. He is currently held at Pasco County Jail without bond.
Under Florida law, sexual battery involving a victim between the ages of 12 and 17 can be a life felony when the accused is a law-enforcement officer acting in a position of governmental control or authority, according to the Florida Statutes, Online Sunshine. The same statute defines sexual battery to include oral, anal or genital penetration or union.
Part of a Troubling Pattern in Florida
Black's arrest is not an isolated case involving personnel entrusted with supervising minors in Florida's juvenile justice system. A former New York Police Department officer who also worked as a Pasco Sheriff's Office deputy was separately arrested after an investigation into an alleged sexual battery involving a juvenile, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. In Broward County, a worker at a state juvenile justice facility was arrested on an allegation of sexual battery of an inmate, per NBC 6 South Florida, and a Port St. Lucie man who worked at a juvenile detention facility was separately charged with lascivious touching of a minor, the same station reported.
No additional details about Black's case have been made public beyond what authorities described to Tampa Bay 28, and the evidence reviewed does not establish the case's current court status.
