A well-known former east Alabama attorney and former state senator has been indicted on sex abuse.

A Calhoun County grand jury indicted 79-year-old Doug Ghee on first-degree sexual abuse, according to court records made public Thursday. That charge is a felony crime.

The indictment does not identify the alleged victim.

The Alabama Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting.

Two former clients in 2024 filed lawsuits against Ghee and his law firm. It was not immediately clear if the victim in the criminal case is either of those women.

Ghee, following last year’s allegations, surrendered his law license “pursuant to the Alabama Rules of Disciplinary Procedure.”

Ghee, accompanied by his attorney, surrendered to the Calhoun County Jail Thursday. He was booked in and released on $5,000 bond.

His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but records show Ghee is asking to waive his arraignment and enter a plea of not guilty.

In August 2024, a 28-year-old woman filed the first lawsuit against Ghee, who was her attorney in a criminal case, alleging that he sexually assaulted her while she was handcuffed in a Calhoun County Jail visiting room for lawyers and clients.

The lawsuit stated Ghee told the woman he was friends with the judge and assistant district attorney assigned to her cases and because of that, he could get her a better offer than the one that was on the table with her current attorney.

The offer was contingent on the woman hiring Ghee for $2,500 and “agree to be his sex slave” after she was released from custody, according to the lawsuit.

In the second lawsuit, a 27-year-old woman said she became involved in 2022 in a divorce and DHR investigation after her child ingested a CBD gummy.

The woman and her parents first met with Ghee on Oct. 18, 2022, and paid him an $1,800 retainer.

The following day, Ghee called her back to his office where she learned her husband had filed for divorce.

She paid Ghee another “flat fee” of $3,500 to retain Ghee and the firm for the divorce proceedings.

In their first time meeting alone, the suit states, Ghee asked her if she “was good at keeping secrets.”

As the meeting progressed, she told Ghee she was not comfortable going to court yet because she believed she would fail a drug test due to her use of legal Delta 8/CBD products.

Again, the suit contends, Ghee asked if she was good at keeping secrets.

The woman said when she stood up to leave at the end of the meeting, Ghee blocked the door and sexually assaulted her.

Specifically, the lawsuit says, he grabbed her face and started kissing her, groped her and put his hand down her pants.

He told her, according to the lawsuit, “Look, if you want to have the upper hand in court and get what you want, you’ll do what I say.”

He went on to say he could talk to the judge off the record and get her what she wanted.

“At this point, Doug realized that he had successfully converted his client into a controllable victim and began to further take advantage of her,’’ the alleged victim’s lawyer wrote in the suit.

From October 2022 through February 2023, the two met at least eight times at his office or at undisclosed homes. The meetings were always after 4:30 p.m., and his office closed for the day at 5 p.m.

The suit alleges Ghee used his power at the law firm to send any remaining employees home and lock the doors. It also states he took medication she believed to be Viagra during the visits, and forced her to have sex with him.

Ghee launched his law career in 1975 and served in the Alabama Legislature from 1990 through 1998.