Ex-Harris deputy indicted in two more sexual misconduct cases involving stopping women

Two more women pulled over by then-Harris County Deputy Thomas Carl “Tommy” Pierson have accused him of sexually inappropriate conduct, leading to a 12-count indictment against the former law enforcement officer, whom a third woman accused of sexual assault last February.

A Harris County grand jury has indicted Pierson on one count each of aggravated sodomy, sexual battery, false imprisonment and tampering with evidence; two counts each of stalking and sexual assault on a person in custody; and four counts of violating his oath as a public officer.

Pierson was arrested May 6. After the alleged sexual assault, investigators backtracked his traffic stops to contact other women he pulled over to see if he exhibited similar conduct.

In the initial case, a woman told authorities Pierson stopped and cited her for speeding around 1 p.m. Feb. 14 on Ga. 85 near Victoria Airpark Drive, north of Waverly Hall. After that traffic stop, he pulled her over again 5 miles away, near Twin Lakes Road, where he switched off his patrol car’s recording equipment and forced the woman to give him oral sex, investigators said.

The woman drove to another county before reporting the assault, authorities said. Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley learned of the allegations the next day and asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to pursue the case. Pierson, 38, was fired from the job he’d held for 16 months. He previously had worked as a jailer in Muscogee County.

His indictment outlines two more incidents from 2015:

▪ He is accused of violating his oath and stalking a woman on Oct. 20, having engaged in “sexually inappropriate behavior” after pulling her over, and then showing up at her Warm Springs Road home the next day.

▪ He faces those same charges for engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior while stopping another woman on Sept. 12, then tracking her to her grandmother’s Holland Road home “for the purpose of harassing and intimidating” her.

Pierson has been released on bond while he awaits trial.

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Ex-Harris deputy indicted in two more sexual misconduct cases involving stopping women."