Prosecutors have dropped a highly publicized case against an inmate accused of raping another inmate while she was handcuffed to a wall at the Oklahoma County jail.

Danta Ramone Thomas, 45, was charged with first-degree rape in September. A judge dismissed the case March 7 after prosecutors reported "victim unable to be located at this time."

Prosecutors told the judge the charge would be refiled "once victim is located."

The case resulted in new criticism of the trust that oversees jail operations because the inmates were not being supervised. "This is another example of the jail trust failing to protect those who they are responsible to care for," said David Prater, then the district attorney.

It also led to more criticism of Greg Williams, the jail administrator, who agreed in December to step down. “We deeply regret the harm that was suffered in this situation," Williams said after the charge was filed.

The state's multicounty grand jury has been investigating the jail and is aware of the incident. Grand jurors meet again next week and are expected to issue a report on their findings.

Thomas was accused of raping the inmate early July 19 after walking away unnoticed from the booking area. He had been arrested the previous day after being accused of assault.

"After detention officers finished his processing, inmate Thomas was instructed to stand with his back against the wall and wait for the other inmates to (be) finished being processed," a jail investigator reported in a court affidavit. "At about 00:34 hours, inmate Thomas disregarded these instructions and walked away from the area. He walked down the hallway towards the old medical screening area, where inmate K.N. was sitting, handcuffed to a bar."

Prosecutors alleged he then raped the woman based on what can be seen from a jail security camera recording. She shook her head, "No," appeared to push Thomas away at one point and tried more than once to step away, according to the affidavit. She squatted down near the end of the incident to prevent him from moving behind her again.

The female inmate had been arrested hours before on complaints of public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, records show. Prosecutors said she was awaiting release.

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She was listed in jail records as a transient.

Thomas had been released from the jail by the time he was charged Sept. 15 with rape. U.S. marshals arrested him Sept. 19 in Jacksonville, Florida, on the rape case.

Thomas remained in jail Wednesday, awaiting trials on a 2021 felony assault charge and a 2022 misdemeanor assault charge.

Prater told the trust in November that he had he wanted to charge Thomas as quickly as possible with rape after jail investigators showed him the recording of the incident. He said the investigators took weeks to get him the necessary paperwork to file the charge.

He said investigators told him "we're not sure if this was consensual or not but we've got some video we want you to watch."

"Within two seconds, it was clear to me that what I saw was a forcible rape on a woman chained to a wall by an inmate who had been left to roam the receiving area by someone in the jail trust," he told the trust. "I said, 'I don't know what you saw, but I saw a damn rape. ... We need to get this guy charged immediately.'"

Prater did not seek reelection and left office in January.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County jail rape accusation. case has been dismissed