Maury County Deputy James Thomas was indicted for falsifying documents during a federal investigation last week. A federal grand jury charged James Stewart Thomas with one count of "Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations" in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1519 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1519), see PDF link above map for indictment. The media is reporting this as if James Thomas was arrested for rape because the documents he falsified falsely accused an inmate of making sexual advances towards him and omitted the fact that he had sex with her. You're probably wondering why he is not charged with rape, so are we. We think it is due to conflicts of interest with the local district attorney and federal jurisdiction.
The local news has repeatedly blasted local authorities for failing to take action in this case. Such failures are known to draw the eyes of the feds from time to time. They see it as a federal obligation to intervene when local authorities are unable or unwilling to do their jobs. In this case, the feds probably couldn't charge him with rape due to the crime taking place in the state of Tennessee with no nexus to interstate commerce. However, when the FBI began investigating another matter the documents became evidence in a federal investigation, so the feds can now charge him with obstructing a federal investigation. Think of it like lying to the face of a FBI agent while he's looking for your missing sister, you could have lied to anyone else and been just fine, but now you'll do fed time.
Thomas is no stranger to the spotlight. He made headlines regularly after his teenage sister Elizabeth Thomas was kidnapped by her 51 year old teacher. The Amber Alert lasted quite a while, but they eventually found her and he is in prison.
According to public records, James Stewart Thomas is a 31 year old resident of Columbia, Tennessee. His last known home address is 2550 Pillow Drive, Apartment A9, Columbia, Tennessee, 38401. We are making that address available because we wouldn't be surprised if he is granted pre-trial release due to him having no priors, deep ties to the community, a long history of working as a law enforcement officer, and the crime he is charged with not being categorically a crime of violence. We think that had he told the truth in his report he would have been charged with rape years ago. We wish we could find a copy of this video that we could embed below for you (https://www.wsmv.com/2018/10/26/da-investigation-into-elizabeth-thomas-custodian-launched-after-accusations-inmate-rape/). Please do not use this information for any unlawful purpose. We simply want potential victims to be aware of the danger lurking in their area. That is why we are exempting Thomas from our usual courtesy of censoring home addresses of law enforcement personnel. We think it is in the interest of public safety that people know this information if it pertains to them at all.