Tennessee sheriff accused of rape

Ray, who is also the subject of a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe, is also accused of threatening the girl with his service weapon, holding her against her will in his truck and sexually molesting her.

?I have no knowledge of this lawsuit and will refer this information to my attorney,? Ray said Friday after the suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the girl?s civil rights and seeks unspecified damages. It was filed on behalf of the girl and her mother by Knoxville attorneys Gregory P. Isaacs and Arthur F. Knight III. Isaacs declined comment.

The lawsuit alleges that the girl went to a Hancock County farm partly owned by Ray with the sheriff and her grandfather, a longtime acquaintance of Ray.

Ray allegedly drove the girl to another section of the farm ?under the guise of continuing to hunt for deer.?

He is accused of brandishing his service weapon before touching the girl, removing her clothes, raping her and forcing her to perform oral sex.

The girl reported the alleged rape to Claiborne County authorities the following day, prompting District Attorney General C. Berkeley Bell’s request for the TBI criminal investigation.

The lawsuit says that the TBI obtained DNA from semen on the girl?s jacket that matched that of Ray?s.

Ray, who was elected in August, continues to perform the duties of sheriff.

Ray is a former state trooper, TBI agent and sessions court judge. He and his partner agent at TBI resigned the agency after a controversial investigation of a double murder case in the early 1980s.

In 1986, while a judge, Ray was acquitted on federal charges of taking payoffs to allow businesses to have poker machines.