Dirty Cops and Sacrificial Lambs: Inside Oconee County’s Corrupt System

John Towery isn’t just any criminal—he’s a convicted child molester who once wore an Oconee County Sheriff’s badge while “protecting” kids at Fair Oaks Elementary. Word has it he’s still lurking somewhere in Oconee County, and if I knew his exact address, I’d blast it for everyone to see. Rumor also has it that before he landed in Oconee, he served as an officer over in Anderson County.

Towery was found guilty of “conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children by force, fraud, or coercion.” That’s right—an Oconee County cop, who spent his days around elementary school children, was planning to kidnap them for sexual purposes. It’s stomach-churning to imagine that he might have actually enjoyed walking into that school each morning. But don’t worry, Towery is safe and taken care of: this country seems all too willing to shield dirty cops, even when they commit the most appalling crimes.

Towery was given a shockingly light sentence—just two years of house arrest—after helping to rat out his associates in the child sex trafficking ring. I imagine that we could have got him to talk by putting his balls in a clamp and turning it slowly without having to make any plea bargain. Then we could have locked him up where he belongs in a prison of people that know his crime so that he could live in fear until an inmate took his punishment to the full extent. But this is America, where we all too often shield child molesters if they wear a badge.

Even more sickening, Towery admitted to bringing an underage minor to the Upstate and trafficking that child through multiple hotels. This charge, unbelievably, was dropped during plea bargaining. Apparently, as a cop, sexual abuse of a minor is accepted behavior.

Recently, I learned that John Towery actually has a Facebook page—and it appears to be the real deal. The name matches, and there’s plenty of evidence pointing to it being him. For starters, most of his friends are local, including William H. Mercer, a corporal at the Seneca Police Department. One post on the John Towery page, dated April 17, 2012, reads: “Every cop who puts this on in the morning,” accompanied by an image of a sheriff’s badge, “knows there’s a chance they might not come back at night.”

I believe being a police officer can be dangerous at times. I’ve read that construction work is statistically riskier, and maybe that’s a petty argument—but I’m certain John Towery’s job was dangerous for entirely different reasons. As the resource officer at Fair Oaks Elementary, he was tasked with protecting children and families from harm. Instead, he was likely fantasizing about these young children and scheming about kidnapping them for his own twisted desires.

His job carried a very real, personal danger—any parent who discovered his true intentions might have been tempted to show up at the school or his home, gun in hand, to end his life. That smug Facebook post, suggesting that cops know they might not make it home at the end of the day, takes on a grim irony when you consider a child-molesting police officer stationed at an elementary school. In response to this Facebook post, Sue Wooten asked him, “How’s the new job??? Do they appreciate you like they should?” to which he replied, “It is going great.” Well, it was—right up until he got caught molesting children and plotting to kidnap more.

From my own experiences living here and working as a civil rights advocate, it’s clear that Oconee County law enforcement cannot be trusted. Take the case of Jaime Motta, who has been locked up for over a year and a half without so much as an evidentiary hearing, accused of human trafficking a woman. Witnesses say all he did was help her move, buy her clothes, provide a cell phone and a gym membership, and leave her alone in his apartment while he worked. It seems this so-called “victim” is actually a con artist angling for a quick path to legal residency in America.

Close friends who helped Karen move and settle in confirm that Jaime genuinely believed she was his girlfriend and looked forward to building a future together. In reality, it appears Karen was nothing more than a con artist. But the West Union Police seized her story and ran with it, since it conveniently aligns with their agenda of incarcerating the vulnerable. The Oconee justice system eagerly backs this underhanded effort, keeping Jaime locked up without trial, all in the hope of breaking his spirit so that he will accept a plea bargain.

I’m convinced the real reason there hasn’t been a hearing yet is that they’re using his illegal incarceration as a tool to pressure him into a plea bargain. This is a standard Oconee County maneuver: first, lock someone up on any charge that looks like it could stick. Then, let them sit for months—no trial, no hearing—before finally offering a deal. Usually, that deal involves pleading guilty to a lesser charge and, in return, getting released that same day with time served. If the defendant refuses, it’s back to jail for more endless waiting.

This tactic serves a dual purpose. First, it keeps the jail full, supporting local jobs and generating tax revenue. Second, it removes liability for the county, since inmates who accept a plea bargain have already pleaded guilty, eliminating the possibility of a civil suit for wrongful arrest and incarceration. In this twisted system, individuals like Jaime Motta are treated as sacrificial lambs, fueling a machine rooted in deep corruption. Meanwhile, John Towery remains a protected cog in that machine, shielded no matter how much harm he inflicts on others.

Welcome to Oconee County, where a two-tiered “justice” system reigns supreme. John Towery sits at the top, roaming free despite his sickening actions, while Jaime Motta languishes behind bars as a sacrificial lamb—proof that the system can always find a scapegoat to justify itself.