Former Cumberland County Stable Waste Director Indicted For Civil Rights Violations | USAO-MDTN

NASHVILLE – A nine-count indictment was unsealed today, indicting former Cumberland County, Tennessee solid waste director of civil rights violations, including kidnapping and sexual assault, of women he was overseeing, US Attorney General Mary said Jane Stewart for the Middle District of Tennessee with. A federal grand jury in Nashville on Monday indicted Michael Harvel, 59, of Crossville, Tennessee. FBI agents arrested Harvel at his home this morning and he will appear before a US judge later today.

According to the indictment, Harvel was the solid waste director for Cumberland County with an office in the Cumberland County Recycling Center. Harvel’s official duties included overseeing workers at the recycling center and other locations and landfills in the county, where he oversaw dozens of women doing community service or as paid employees.

The indictment alleges that Harvel sexually abused seven women under his supervision between 2015 and 2018. Specific allegations include kidnapping and sexually abusing two women and violently raping one of them on two separate occasions.

In an incident in July 2017, Harvel locked a woman in a locked room in a county facility, physically pushed her onto a table, and sexually abused her. In another incident in November 2015, Harvel approached another woman in a dark office, physically pushed her to a desk, and raped her. In December 2015, Harvel drove the same woman to an isolated landfill and raped her again.

The indictment alleges several other incidents of sexual assault, including stroking other women’s breasts and genitals under his supervision and against their will.

If convicted, Harvel faces life imprisonment.

This case is being investigated by the FBI. U.S. Assistant Attorney Sara Beth Myers and Trial Attorney Michael Songer of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are following the case.

An indictment is just an indictment. The accused is presumed innocent until a judicial proof of his guilt has been established.

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