Three people have been indicted by a grand jury in Cherokee County, North Carolina, in separate cases charging them with child sex offenses.
High school teacher Kayla Alayne Sprinkles, 26, was indicted on five counts of sexual activity with a student after an investigation that began in late March, according to a news release from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
The release didn't say which high school Sprinkles taught at or what triggered the investigation.
Sprinkles learned of the indictments, possibly through social media, and left Cherokee County, according to the sheriff's office. She turned herself in to the Mecklenburg County Detention Center and was released on a $25,000 bond.
A convicted child sex offender was arrested on new charges after the grand jury met June 4, according to a news release from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, North Carolina.
Ricardo Gamez DockeryRicardo Gamez Dockery, 37, is under a $560,000 bond on a single charge of statutory sexual offense with a child and three counts of indecent liberties with a child, according to the news release.
The sheriff's office received a report in April about a suspected child sexual assault and an investigation began, the release states. The Child Advocacy Center and state social services investigators helped gather information in the case.
Dockery is a registered sex offender, with a prior conviction on four counts of indecent liberties with a minor dating from 2008, according to the release.
And an 18-year-old Murphy, North Carolina, man has been charged with one count of indecent liberties with a child.
The release said Dawson Michael Burris was charged after a child sexual assault was investigated in the Marble community of Cherokee County. Burris was arrested and given a $50,000 bond.
Sheriff Derrick Palmer praised his own investigators and the HAVEN Child Advocacy Center for "teamwork that allows us to be successful in these most difficult of crimes."
The grand jury also indicted a corrections officer and a jail inmate over a cellphone smuggled into in the county jail.
Kathy Carlene LeitnerThe news release said investigators discovered an inappropriate relationship between the jailer, Kathy Carlene Leitner, 48, and inmate Barry Wade Allen. The release said Allen, 42, is charged with child sexual assault.
Barry Wade AllenThe release said Allen was given the phone sometime between January and April. Investigators uncovered evidence of telephone calls and letters between Allen and Leitner. In one case, Leitner passed on a message from another inmate in which Allen was to harm a third inmate, the release states.
Both are charged with possession of a cellphone in a detention facility.
Leitner was arrested Thursday and jailed in lieu of $15,000 bond, according to the release. Wade has been moved to the Macon County Detention Center and his bond increased.
All five defendants are scheduled to appear July 2 in Cherokee County Superior Court.