Douglasville Man, Ex-Cobb Deputy Sentenced to 40 Years

A former Cobb Sheriff's Office deputy charged in January with sexually assaulting inmates over a four-year period has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Monday, according to Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds. 

Reynolds said that Alvin Blake Sutherland, 52, of Douglasville, said in his plea agreement that he acknowledged having sexual encounters with five female prisoners at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and elsewhere. 

The acts, some of which were forced, reportedly occurred between June 2009 and January of this year.

Sutherland was fired from his job upon his arrest and in March was indicted for rape and 20 other felony counts. His guilty plea was to charges of sexual assault against a person in custody, according to Reynolds' office.

Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley ordered Sutherland to serve 20 years of his sentence in custody, and he will be registered as a sex offender. 

Sutherland's attorneys had been seeking 10 years to serve.

Sutherland's 11-year-old daughter Dasani tearfully pleaded for leniency at the sentencing, according to a statement issued by Reynolds' office: “My dad has so much love inside of him. Please let my dad come home with his dear family.”

But Staley said Sutherland's actions were "deplorable and despicable" as he forced victims into sex acts with "an amazing similarity of isolation and perpetration."