Deputy fired in Georgia county after investigation reveals relationship with gang member inmate

AUGUSTA, Ga. (InvestigateTV) - A Richmond, GA, county sheriff’s deputy was fired and arrested in October 2025 after an investigation uncovered her relationship with an inmate had crossed the line.

The Georgia deputy was arrested and charged with gang activity.

Diana Santiago faces the following charges: violation of oath of office, conspiracy to purchase or possess a controlled substance and unlawful street gang activity.

Santiago was fired just before being taken into custody.

Records show this isn’t the first time she’s been linked to alleged criminals. Santiago was suspended for one day in 2022 after she admitted to being in a romantic relationship with an inmate.

Recorded calls reveal a relationship

Almost every call to and from jail is recorded. No one should know that better than a law enforcement officer.

But in 2022, Richmond County Deputy Diana Santiago was recorded at least 27 times talking to an inmate at the Greene County Jail, putting the safety of her fellow officers at risk.

In about half of the calls, Santiago is in uniform. In one, she’s actually driving her patrol car during a video call.

In some calls, she appears to be on duty.

At one point, she shows him where she is working. Another time, he brings up a gang by name.

“Where you at?” the inmate said.

“Shirley Avenue,” Santiago said.

“Shirley, L.O.E.,” the inmate said.

“I know,” Santiago said.

Connection to gang

Documents show Santiago’s connection to that same gang.

According to her recent arrest warrant, she admitted to an intimate relationship with a member of L.O.E., which stands for Loyalty Over Everything.

The warrant also said she admitted to visiting that member while she was on duty and using the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office databases to look up information for him.

That suspect is not the same person in the 2022 videos.

The inmate in those calls is Rahim Brown, who at the time was facing felony drug charges in Greene County.

But that’s not all.

Brown was arrested when he was out on bond on murder and armed robbery charges for a shooting that killed a man in 2021 at the Budgetel on 5th Street in Augusta. Brown is also a convicted felon.

Relationship was well known

According to Santiago’s disciplinary file, it was well known around the jail Brown was in a relationship with a deputy, which isn’t surprising considering the video calls are out in the open.

You can even see her, in uniform, waving to another inmate.

She’s also listed as Rahim Brown’s wife on his visitation information.

Someone reported all this to Internal Affairs at the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in 2022, and Santiago didn’t deny it.

She said she met Brown at the Augusta Mall about five or six months earlier when he was out on bond.

The relationship violated policy, but she agreed to end it, so she was suspended for just one day.

She was ordered to have no contact with the inmate but was allowed to have a closure, break-up call.

Damage already done

By then, the damage could have already been done.

She had already told a convicted felon in jail on drug charges about an operation to find fentanyl.

“Who is the state, state patrol?” the inmate said.

“Undercover, but they got all of them out here. Remember I told you, like 50 different spots,” Santiago said.

“They looking for that like that?” the inmate said.

Santiago nodded her head.

And she was caught not having her body camera on.

“You left your camera,” the inmate said.

“Well, then they won’t see nothing. What you don’t see, you don’t know,” Santiago said.

State investigation triggered

Had then-Sheriff Richard Roundtree fired Santiago in 2022, it would have triggered a state investigation.

Georgia POST certifies all law enforcement officers. That investigation could have prevented her from ever being an officer again in Georgia.

Because she was fired this time, POST is now investigating.

According to researchers at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, no government agency tracks arrests of law enforcement. But the university’s Henry A Wallace Police Crime Database does.

Its data shows each year between 2006 and 2021, the U.S. saw about 1,200 cases in which a police officer was arrested.

Roundtree thanked a reporter for reaching out but called the request for comment extremely unrealistic, as he’s been out of office for more than a year now and can’t remember specifics about the case.

Read more on this investigation by clicking here.