A Forsyth County sheriff's deputy was charged yesterday with two counts of receiving bribes and two other offenses after an agent with State Bureau of Investigation accused him of "receiving visual acts of sexual arousal" from two women that he threatened to arrest earlier this month, court records show.
Christopher Heath McLaurin, 31, of 4900 Whitman Road, Pfafftown, was also charged with one count of assault and battery and one count of false imprisonment, both misdemeanors, the records show.
Sheriff Bill Schatzman did not say much about McLaurin's arrest last night except that he was fired yesterday.
"I can't comment on our internal investigation, and I'm not privy to the facts in the SBI's criminal investigation," Schatzman said.
The SBI agent accused McLaurin of receiving the sexual favors while he was conducting an investigation on Aug. 6. McLaurin threatened to charge the women with criminal offenses and to take one of them to jail if they did not perform the acts, two arrest warrants say.
Under state law, felony bribery of a public officer occurs when that person receives or agrees to receive anything of value while performing or omitting to perform any official act that lies in the scope of his or her authority and duties.
The agent accused McLaurin of assaulting one of the women by putting handcuffs on her and detaining her without her consent and against her will, a warrant says.
The court papers did not indicate what type of investigation McLaurin was conducting or the offenses that he threatened to charge the women with.
Maj. Brad Stanley, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said that a complaint about McLaurin's actions was filed with the sheriff's office on Aug. 7.
"We began looking into the complaint," Stanley said. "Based on the information we discovered, the district attorney's office wanted an independent review."
The SBI got involved with the investigation last week, he said.
Schatzman said that the complaint came from one of the women involved.
McLaurin worked for eight years as a deputy, according to one court record. He turned himself in to authorities.
He was released yesterday from the Forsyth County Jail on $35,000 bond.
He is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 5.
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
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