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Lake City Police Sergeant under investigation for reportedly having sex with informant

The report states that those on the task force are prohibited from having any personal contact with informants "outside of their on-duty professional relationship."
Credit: JUN2 / Thinkstock

A sergeant with the Lake City Police Department is under investigation after he reportedly had a sexual relationship with a confidential informant, according to a report from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.

The alleged affair came to light on April 24 at 11:15 p.m. when a detective and an investigator said they spotted the unoccupied police vehicle of Lake City Police Sgt. Jon Jenkins parked at the informant's hotel.

The name of the informant is omitted from the report.

Both witnesses told an officer about the sighting, prompting the officer to ask Jenkins where he was at the time and if he was around the hotel. The report says Jenkins paused before answering but eventually said he was not in the area.

However, security footage reportedly shows Jenkins arriving at the hotel at 10:54 p.m. in an assigned patrol vehicle and following a woman into the building. Footage also showed Jenkins leaving the hotel about 30 minutes later, according to the report.

Officers later visited the hotel to speak with the informant, who said Jenkins visited her room with a beer in his hand.

She told officers that she and Jenkins had sex after he began kissing her. She said she only did it because she felt obligated to and was afraid she would go to jail if she refused his advances. 

She also said that Jenkins had shown up to her room numerous times uninvited and would make comments about watching her when she's unaware. The informant said Jenkins would send text messages that would soon turn from professional to sexual and asking her to meet up with him.

On April 25, Jenkins was brought in to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office where he was asked about the alleged affair. The report says Jenkins admitted to being at the informant's hotel to get information. He also denied allegations that he and the informant had sex, saying, "Oh, we did? That's news." 

But as questioning went on, the reports says Jenkins finally admitted to having sex with the informant, admitting he "got caught up and done something really dumb and here I am now to lose my job ... My marriage, because of a real stupid a-- decision that I made."

Jenkins claimed the informant initiated the encounter by sending a photo of herself "not wearing much." 

"She caught me at a weak moment and I got got," the sergeant said in the report.

Both parties blamed each other for initiating the relationship, but the report says text messages showed "mutual flirting" and suggested that both parties had met up for at least one previous sexual encounter before meeting at the hotel. The report says the affair started somewhere around April 9.

The informant and Jenkins initially met during a drug bust weeks before, in which the informant was found to have methamphetamine in her possession. She then became an informant to avoid charges.

Jenkins is said to manage the informant and acts as her main point of contact.

The report states that those on the task force are prohibited from having any personal contact with informants "outside of their on-duty professional relationship."

Jenkins is facing a sexual battery charge that regards him as an offender in a position of control or authority. 

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