photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Friday, June 26, 2026.

A 43-year-old man is being held on a $1 million bond after being charged with sexually abusing two young girls in Douglas County, and his partner has signed a diversion agreement admitting that she knew about the abuse but told the girls to not tell anyone.

According to allegations in a recently released arrest affidavit, Jerome Leallen Sholes repeatedly molested two children in his care, both of whom are still under 8 years old. The abuse is alleged to have occurred between 2021 and 2024 and was reported earlier this year.

Sholes’ partner, Felicia Nichole Lee, a former Douglas County corrections officer, has entered into a diversion agreement with the District Attorney’s Office in which she has admitted that the two children, also in her care, had told her about the abuse but that she did not report it and told the girls to keep it a secret. She had originally been charged with aggravated child endangerment, but is on felony diversion for two counts of aggravated intimidation of a witness/victim.

According to allegations in Sholes’ arrest affidavit, which have not been proved in court, one of the young girls in January disclosed to a school social worker that she and her sister had been sexually abused by Sholes. The girl said she had told Lee that Sholes watched “weird videos” and did that “stuff” to her. Lee reportedly told the child that Sholes could go to jail for that.

The two girls were interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center on the same day that the girl made the report to the social worker. The girl elaborated that the videos Sholes watched were “weird stuff about getting on men and women without clothes.” The girl said Sholes would then act out the pornographic content of the videos on her, subjecting her and her sister to what would later be charged as multiple counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Sholes also allegedly filmed himself engaging in child sex abuse and showed it to one of the girls.

The other girl was hesitant to talk about what she had endured with Sholes because Lee had told her not to talk about it and she feared getting in trouble, according to the affidavit. Sholes also allegedly threatened to smack the girls if they did not comply with his sexual demands or if they told anyone.

One of the girls told an investigator, “He said don’t tell anyone or else you’ll be in big trouble … but I’m telling somebody anyways because I don’t want that to happen again.”

Lee told an investigator that after she found out about the alleged abuse she considered contacting police but “because she is a corrections officer, she didn’t want to look like she was ‘just making stuff up.'” Lee said it was possible that Sholes would deny it and “then I’m the one looking like an idiot,” according to the affidavit.

The child made the abuse report to the school social worker on Jan. 19, and Lee found out from the child the next day that she had told people. Instead of going to police, Lee left the two girls alone with Sholes as she ran an errand for about 30 minutes. According to the affidavit, she told the children “if he does anything else, let me know so I can report it immediately.”

When questioned about this by police, Lee said she understood she should not have left the children with Sholes after the allegations of abuse but should have kept them safely in her care.

“That was a big mistake on my part,” the affidavit quotes her as saying.

Police seized Sholes’ cellphone pursuant to a warrant and gave him the opportunity to be interviewed, but he declined. The affidavit, sworn to in May by investigator Jackie Clark, does not indicate what, if anything, was found on the phone. Clark notes that not all the known facts are disclosed in the affidavit but only enough to establish probable cause to arrest the couple.

Lee signed her 18-month diversion agreement on Sept. 2. If she violates its terms, criminal proceedings on the original charges will be resumed against her. She is required to stay out of legal trouble, to abstain from drugs and alcohol, to pay court costs of $193 and to complete at least 20 hours of community service, among other conditions. If she successfully completes her diversion, the case against her will be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again.

Lee was placed on administrative leave from her job as a Douglas County corrections officer and subsequently terminated by Sheriff Jay Armbrister on May 22, according to George Diepenbrock, a sheriff’s office spokesman.

Sholes was arrested this summer and is awaiting trial in the Douglas County Jail on a $1 million bond. His next court appearance is a status conference in front of Judge Amy Hanley on Nov. 25.

Sholes has a previous felony conviction for aggravated assault in Wyandotte County, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.