This is just another day at the MCSO where you’re either special or you’re not. The “Nots” are down here helpless at the bottom (the jail). Commissioners, County Judge, wake up. Overtime and lawsuits.
McLennan County officials investigating sexual assault of county jail inmate
Published: Oct. 9, 2026 at 2:54 PM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
WACO, Texas (KWTX) – McLennan County officials are investigating the Oct. 4 sexual assault of a Jack Harwell Detention Center inmate by another male prisoner while three others held him down.
McLennan County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jake Burson said he expects at least four inmates to be charged in the incident after the ongoing investigation is completed.
Burson said the incident occurred Sunday and was captured on video. The 34-year-old male inmate sexually assaulted was taken to a local hospital for treatment and now remains in protective custody at the Jack Harwell facility on State Highway 6.
Mona Keathley, the inmate’s attorney, said her client remain traumatized by the gang attack and sobbed uncontrollably while talking to her about the incident on the phone. He said the men threatened to kill him and his family if he reported the assault.
Keathley said she will file a motion to try to get her client released from jail on a personal recognizance bond in the wake of the incident because he can’t afford to post his bonds totaling $100,000. He has been jailed since July 22 on assault-family violence and methamphetamine possession charges.
Keathley has recommended a personal injury lawyer from Dallas to her client’s family, and his older sister told KWTX Friday that he plans to sue McLennan County for damages.
“My concern is that he remain in protective custody until I can try to get him out,” Keathley said. “He is obviously a target, but the jail doesn’t seem to care. They won’t give me any information over the phone about what happened, so I’m going to file an open records request with the county because they aren’t telling me anything.”
Keathley said before the sexual assault the man was blindsided by another inmate on Sept. 22 while he was on the phone and in custody at the Highway 6 Jail.
After that initial assault, Keathley spoke to a jail sergeant and asked for him to be moved to a more-secure location.
“She was very rude to me and said, ‘Well, we aren’t going to move him just because you are asking us to,’” Keathley said.
However, jail officials did move her client from the Highway 6 Jail to the adjacent Jack Harwell Detention Center, Keathley said. But that’s where the sexual assault occurred, she said, adding that he has since been moved into protective custody at the Jack Harwell facility.
The Jack Harwell Facility, formally, was a private run jail before the county took back operation of the facility. The facilities sit side-by-side on State Highway 6, and combined, house an average of 1,4000 inmates.
The man’s older sister and Keathley both said he told them a jailer announced during a meal that he was a child sex offender, which is not true, the women said. He told them there were witnesses to the jailer’s comments.
Burson said the investigation remains ongoing, but added he was not informed of that allegation.
“I haven’t heard that, but we certainly will look into that,” Burson said. “If that’s true, it is beyond unacceptable and that person won’t have a job here much longer.”
Keathley said she doesn’t know the motivation behind the attack on her client, but his sister is convinced the statement by the jail official sparked the assault.
The man’s sister said he is a construction worker and grew up in Clifton with two brothers and two sisters. She said the family moved to Waco about 20 years ago.
Copyright 2026 KWTX. All rights reserved.
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