{"id":32815,"date":"2026-03-12T15:08:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=32815"},"modified":"2026-03-12T15:08:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:08:43","slug":"white-county-correctional-officer-arrested-for-custodial-sexual-misconduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/uncategorized\/32815-white-county-correctional-officer-arrested-for-custodial-sexual-misconduct\/","title":{"rendered":"White County Correctional Officer Arrested for Custodial Sexual Misconduct"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>(HAYS)<\/p>\n<p>Illinois State Police (ISP) Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 8 Special Agents arrested 57-year-old Darren R. Hays of Carmi, IL for six counts of Custodial Sexual Misconduct (Class 3 Felony) and one count of Official Misconduct (Class 3 Felony).<\/p>\n<p>On November 11, 2025, the White County Sheriff\u2019s Office requested ISP\u2019s assistance with an investigation involving Hays, a correctional officer at the White County Jail. An extensive investigation revealed that Hays allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with a female inmate while on-duty at the jail.<\/p>\n<p>On March 11, 2026, ISP Special Agents presented the case to the Gallatin County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office, who filed the above-mentioned charges and issued an arrest warrant. ISP arrested Hays the same day and transported him to the Saline County Detention Center where he remains in custody pending his first court appearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(HAYS) Illinois State Police (ISP) Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 8 Special Agents arrested 57-year-old Darren R. Hays of Carmi, IL for six counts of Custodial Sexual Misconduct (Class 3 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":32816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>White County Correctional Officer Arrested for Custodial Sexual Misconduct - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/uncategorized\/32815-white-county-correctional-officer-arrested-for-custodial-sexual-misconduct\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"White County Correctional Officer Arrested for Custodial Sexual Misconduct - 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