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Chief sheriff's detective demoted, reassignedThu, 09/14/2006 - 11:19am
By: John Munford
UPDATED Fayette County Chief Sheriff’s Detective Bruce Jordan has been demoted, suspended and will be re-assigned to another position in the department after an internal investigation determined that he violated department regulations, Sheriff Randall Johnson said in a prepared statement Thursday morning. Johnson told The Citizen that Jordan was demoted from lieutenant colonel to lieutenant and suspended for 10 days without pay and docked another two vacation days as a result of the investigation. He also said that Jordan will likely remain on leave while a related criminal investigation is pending on Jordan for sending two detectives under his direction to accompany a Fayette County recreational baseball team to Tennessee for security reasons in July. The detectives’ expenses were paid for from the sheriff’s office drug fund; they also received compensatory time meaning they were allowed to take time off at a later date. Jordan’s new assignment has not yet been determined, but he will not have access to the sheriff’s drug forfeiture funds, Johnson said. The drug forfeiture fund is an account consisting of money seized from drug dealers which must be administered in accordance with federal guidelines. The sheriff declined to explain details of the violations uncovered by a four-member panel that investigated the incident. Johnson said that was “ a personnel matter.” Johnson said he was disappointed, particularly since Jordan has been with him and the sheriff’s office for 27 years. “He’s got a real mind for investigation,” Johnson said, adding that he didn’t think the case amounted to criminal charges though the sheriff’s office will cooperate with the pending criminal investigation. Jordan declined comment Thursday afternoon. Capt. Mike Hattaway, who was Jordan’s second-in-command of investigations, was named acting director of the criminal investigations division, Johnson said. Johnson indicated he wouldn't comment on the matter further because of the pending criminal investigation. Jordan has said the security was necessary because the team, which his son played on, had been threatened by the coach of another team. The security was the subject of a news report on Fox5 Atlanta. Jordan has been the director of the criminal investigations division of the sheriff’s department, a position he rose to after starting as a 19-year-old radio operator years ago. The four-person board that conducted the internal investigation for Johnson included three division directors and one assistant division director, Johnson said. Jordan, whose son was on the team, has denied that he arranged the security detail to be paid with money from the sheriff’s drug funds, and he also said he paid the money back with a personal check. Jordan has said the security was necessary after a coach for a team called the Georgia Reds threatened the Fayette Bulldogs after the Bulldogs won a game at Whitewater High School earlier this summer. It was clear the two teams would meet again at the southeast regional tournament in Tennessee, Jordan said. Jordan told The Citizen last week that the threat was heard by one of the Bulldogs players. “He said something like, ‘We’ll see what happens when you don’t have all these cops around,’” Jordan recalled. Jordan has said he wrote a check to pay back the sheriff’s office for the security although he initially thought the American Amateur Baseball Congress, which hosted the Tennessee tournament, was going to reimburse the sheriff’s department. Jordan said he later learned the AABC would not reimburse the funds. The Bulldogs play in the AABC through the Fayette County Recreation Department. Although the Fox5 report stated that Jordan didn’t cut his personal check until two days after the TV station sought related records in a written request, Jordan told The Citizen last week that he was unaware the open records request had been filed at the time. He added that the check had cleared the bank by the time the Fox5 reporter spoke to him. “I hadn’t seen it (the open records request) until yesterday,” Jordan said Thursday. Jordan has said the sheriff’s department has sent deputies on security details with school field trips and he didn’t think this situation was any different particularly because of the reported threats. login to post comments
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