A man who claims that the former Warren County sheriff raped him as a child says that the sheriff threatened him to make him stay quiet.

The testimony came out during a lawsuit trial against the county. Those involved in the suit allege that that county officials failed to protect children from former Sheriff Edward Bullock.

Wednesday’s witness was the third alleged victim to testify. He was not publicly identified because he was the victim of child sex abuse.

“I was scared to death that I was going back to jail, my mother was going to jail. That’s what that [expletive said] …that if I told anybody I was going to jail and my mother was going to jail,” the victim said.

A former worker at the youth shelter also testified. She said that she told the shelter director several times that she suspected Bullock was molesting kids.

“And he would say, ‘Well, sometimes there are things that maybe you shouldn’t know or shouldn’t ask about,’” the worker said. “Almost like a ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of thing, just don’t get involved.”

Kane In Your Corner first reported about the alleged abuse.

Bullock was tried for rape in 2015 but the trial ended in a hung jury. He died before he could be retried and his estate is not contesting the accusations against him.

An attorney for the county insists that the county is not to blame for Bullock’s actions. The attorney said that while some county workers may have suspected abuse, they didn’t know for sure that it was happening.