SAN AUGUSTINE COUNTY, Texas — A recently filed lawsuit claims a former Deep East Texas sheriff's deputy forced a woman who was hired as a confidential informant to commit sexual acts in exchange for helping her with warrants.
On March 18, a woman filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas Lufkin Division against former San Augustine Sheriff's Office Deputy Terry Fountain, San Augustine County Sheriff Robert Cartwright and San Augustine County.
In the lawsuit, the woman states Fountain coerced her into becoming an informant who would give him information about crime and drug use in San Augustine County. However, the woman said in the lawsuit Fountain would routinely ask her for sexual acts and to send him sexually explicit images. She alleges that Fountain sent her sexually explicit photos.
The woman says in the document that Fountain exploited her from roughly 2018 through January 2023. By that time, the woman wrote in the lawsuit that she realized Fountain was using her and he did not intend to help with the warrants. She later learned the warrants Fountain mentioned were no longer active.
As an informant, the woman said she made numerous busts for Fountain, but after she started this position the inappropriate interactions began. The lawsuit also alleges Fountain made her move to San Augustine County to be closer to him.
In fall 2019, Fountain allegedly had the woman set up a meeting one of her acquaintances at night in a cemetery. During the meeting, all three of them, including Fountain, the woman and the acquaintance, consumed alcohol, the document reads. The lawsuit claims Fountain forced the intoxicated acquaintance to perform a sexual act. Fountain is also accused of making the woman buy drugs for him.
"Deputy Fountain is a sexual predator of the worst kind, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He operates under the authority of the badge, but meanwhile has been engaged in a longtime campaign of sexual perversion and proclivity often targeting victims who are already vulnerable either emotionally, financially, or due to their legal situation," the lawsuit reads.
The woman said in the lawsuit that Sheriff Cartwright and other San Augustine County officials were aware of Fountain's "reign of sexual terror" on the community and they "stood by and did nothing."
According to the complaint, Fountain has been charged with official oppression and the Texas Rangers investigation into that charge remains ongoing. San Augustine County judicial records show he was also indicted on four counts of sexual assault for allegations of sexually assaulting three women.
The woman is requesting a jury trial regarding the complaints against Fountain, Cartwright and San Augustine County.