By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 32-year-old former Shelby County Department of Human Resources employee will spend the next three years on probation after he pleaded guilty to threatening to take a woman’s children if she did not perform sex acts on him.

Brandon Howard Daniel, who lists an address on Hayesbury Lane in Pelham, pleaded guilty to a felony count of soliciting for the purpose of influencing official action and a misdemeanor count of indecent exposure during an Oct. 13 hearing in front of Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Lara Alvis.

As a result of his guilty plea, Daniel will spend three years on probation, must avoid contact with the victim and must register as a sex offender.

Soliciting for the purpose of influencing official action is a Class B felony, and carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Through a plea agreement, charges of harassment and third-degree theft of property were dropped against Daniel.

According to his indictments, Daniel, while serving as a DHR employee in August 2013, told a female client “that if she would have sex with him that he would not take her children away from her.”

His indecent exposure charge came when Daniel exposed himself in the victim’s home “under circumstances he knew his conduct was likely to cause affront or alarm.”

The Alabaster Police Department arrested Daniel after the victim filed a complaint claiming Daniel, her DHR case worker, had inappropriate sexual contact with her during a home visit in Alabaster.

In August 2014, the victim in the case filed a lawsuit against Daniel, Shelby County DHR supervisor Rasheda Gulley and Shelby County DHR Director Kim Mashego. As of Oct. 20, the civil lawsuit was still pending against Daniel and the DHR employees.