GAINESVILLE – The newly elected vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida was convicted in 2019 as part of a state felony investigation into whether he had a sexual relationship with an inmate when he was a jail guard. Details of the court case and its outcome haven’t previously been reported.
As part of the investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement uncovered notes it said were handwritten by Jovanté Teague, 30, of Cross City, inside a jail cell that “clearly indicated” a romantic relationship and “possibly sexual contact” with the female inmate.
The FDLE also interviewed inmates who said Teague kissed the inmate while she was in the shower in the Dixie County Jail, about 50 miles west of Gainesville in north-central Florida. It obtained a recording of the inmate telling her mother on the phone that she had met someone in the jail and he was an officer working there, according to court records reviewed by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.
Teague slipped the notes to the inmate under a food tray to avoid surveillance cameras, court records said. A cellmate — who wasn’t identified in court records – said she saw Teague commit a sexual act through the cell bars, and later one of the handwritten notes from Teague recovered by authorities described that encounter, court records said.
The inmate’s mother said someone named “Jovan” had been texting her from a number that turned out to be Teague’s, court records said. Inmates said Teague was working with a local bail bondsman to arrange for the inmate’s release, the records said.
Separately, the FDLE said it uncovered a separate allegation by a state prisoner who had earlier accused Teague of soliciting a sexual act while he was working as a state prison guard. The inspector general’s office said that claim was never substantiated. In response to a request under Florida’s public records law, the Department of Corrections said it could find no paperwork about Teague’s previous employment at the agency.
As part of his sentence in Dixie County Circuit Court, Teague agreed to surrender his state criminal justice certification, which makes him ineligible to work in law enforcement or in corrections. Teague was Cross City’s vice mayor at the time of his arrest.
In a brief interview, Teague denied being romantically involved with the county jail inmate and said he made some mistakes in the past. Teague did not return subsequent phone messages over many weeks to discuss the case further.
“I’m not a perfect man,” he said, “but I’m somebody who’s willing to do the job.”
Teague was arrested on a felony complaint and his case was included in the circuit court’s felony docket. He pleaded guilty in September 2019 to a single misdemeanor charge of smuggling contraband — the handwritten notes attributed to him — into a county detention facility. The judge sentenced him to two years’ probation, which ended in September 2021, and Teague paid the last of his $1,400 in court fees and fines in February 2023.
As vice chair, Teague, who said he has an office in the Capitol, helps make decisions about party policy, promotes GOP candidates, assists in fundraising and evangelizes conservative ideology — and would at least temporarily take control of the party if the chairman were to become incapacitated.
Republicans elected Teague — who grew up in a double-wide trailer in rural Florida and is often seen wearing a cowboy hat — as the GOP’s vice chair earlier this year, just before President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington. He attended the inauguration as a representative from Florida. Teague wrote on social media that he visited the White House last month, and separately was invited to the White House Easter Egg Roll and in February to a Black History Month event at the White House.
In his election, Teague beat incumbent Jesse Phillips 130-70, and said he was surprised he won, especially by such a wide margin.
An unrelated sex scandal involving the state GOP's then-chairman, Christian Ziegler, roiled Florida during late 2023 and 2024 over a woman's claims that Ziegler and his wife, conservative activist Bridget Ziegler, engaged in three-way sexual encounters, some of which were recorded.
The party last year suspended then later ousted Christian Ziegler amid a police investigation into whether he sexually assaulted the same woman during an encounter he recorded without his wife. Police later cleared Christian Ziegler of the rape allegation, and prosecutors decided not to pursue criminal charges of illegally recording the incident.
Teague said his history as a correctional officer came up as he ran for vice chair, and he was open about his past. Phillips said he believes most people who voted on party leadership were unaware about Teague’s past.
“There was zero public discussion about it,” he said. “My sense is that most people had no idea about this.”
Phillips, a state committeeman for the Republican Party in Seminole County, north of Orlando, said he was approached by at least two people he did not identify after the vote in January who were frustrated to find out about Teague’s criminal record.
Phillips called Teague’s actions an abuse of power and said the recent Ziegler scandal “should highlight the importance of character in leadership positions.”
Phillips said part of the reason he didn’t promote the information when campaigning against Teague is because Teague announced his candidacy for vice chair late in the election cycle. Plus, Phillips said, they’re still on the same team.
The Republican Party of Florida did not respond to repeated phone calls, emails and voicemails to discuss Teague’s background.
Rep. Kat Cammack, a rising star within the Florida GOP, supported Teague and hugged him enthusiastically after his election as vice chair. A Cammack spokeswoman declined to answer questions about whether she was aware of Teague’s criminal conviction.
It’s illegal for a correctional officer to have penetrative sex with an inmate even consensually, and someone convicted could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. Under the separate statute that prosecutors used to convict Teague — illicitly giving to an inmate or receiving unauthorized communications — defendants face up to 1 year in jail. It’s the same law banning visitors from smuggling cigarettes, drugs or cell phones into a prison or jail.
It wasn’t clear why the FDLE and state prosecutors charged Teague under the lesser punishment.
The FDLE investigation started after Teague’s employer, the Dixie County Sheriff’s Office, reported to the state agency that Teague was involved in an inappropriate relationship with an inmate. It said it found Teague’s handwritten notes in the inmate’s cell, including plans to continue their relationship once the inmate was released. Fellow inmates said Teague and the woman talked outside her cell during his work shifts, sometimes for so long that it kept other inmates awake, court records said.
The inmate accused of having a relationship with Teague was in jail at the time on vandalism, theft and burglary charges. She is now 28 years old. She was released in February after serving eight months in the state women’s prison in Ocala, Lowell Correctional Institute, on drug charges. Teague said he has no plans to contact or meet with her.
The inmate told investigators in 2018 she did not have a sexual relationship with Teague. In a recent interview for this reporting, she declined to answer questions about their relationship and said she supports Teague’s work.
“Jovante has worked very hard to get where he is today,” she said in an email. “I'm so proud of him!”
She described Teague as a great person, amazing friend and even better father.
“He's a very respectable guy and has always respected others,” she said.
Teague began in local politics, he said, by turning high school graduation money into a successful city council campaign. He has worked as a logger in Dixie County. From 2015 to 2022, he served in Cross City’s municipal government: three years as a city councilman and five years as vice mayor. He led Dixie County’s Republican Party before his election to the state party.
Growing up, Teague said, he watched his single mother struggle to provide for him. Now, a single father, he said he’s “doing the best he can, trying to fight the fight to stay afloat.”
This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at mcupelli@ufl.edu.