JEFFERSON COUNTY, Tenn — A former Jefferson County Sheriff's Office deputy is facing child sex abuse charges after he was arrested on Tuesday, according to authorities.
Steven Norton is facing numerous counts, after a grand jury handed down an indictment on Monday, according to the CJ Ball, the Cocke County Sheriff. Norton lived in Cocke County.
One indictment said Norton had repeated sexual contact with a person under 13 years old between 2010 and 2014. He faces 15 counts of aggravated sexual battery and five counts of rape of a child. Another indictment said he sexually assaulted a young child in 2018, 2020 and 2023 and faces charges of child rape, aggravated sexual battery and sexual battery by an authority figure in that document.
A third indictment said on March 1 and March 2 he solicited sexual exploitation of two minors. In that document, he faces four counts of soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor, three counts of assault, two counts of aggravated assault and a count of reckless endangerment.
Jeff Coffey, the Jefferson County Sheriff, said Norton was hired at JCSO as a correctional officer in 2001. He said Norton was later moved to the animal control division in 2015 and was terminated from the sheriff's office on March 4 following interviews by investigators.
Ball said Cocke County investigators interviewed Norton at work, and when Jefferson County Sheriff's Office leaders learned about the nature of the allegations, they immediately terminated his employment. He also said Jefferson County deputies arrested Norton and brought him to the Cocke County Jail.
