Former right-hand man says he was wrongly demoted, claims sheriff was told beforehand

Former chief sheriff’s detective Bruce Jordan said he used to look up to Fayette Sheriff Randall Johnson as a father figure.

But all that changed when Jordan was demoted three ranks by the sheriff Sept. 14 for what Jordan is calling a clerical mistake of someone else’s making. The demotion and subsequent 35 percent pay cut ultimately led Jordan to retire from the department two weeks ago.

In a lengthy interview Monday morning, Jordan told The Citizen that the memo which ultimately led to his demotion didn’t contain his initials as he had required for any memo referencing any action taken at his direction.

Jordan said the lack of his initials on that memo proves he didn’t authorize using drug funds to pay $827 in expenses for two detectives providing security in Tennessee for a local baseball team that previously had been threatened by another team playing in the tournament. The controversy, fueled by the fact that Jordan’s son played on the team, was reported initially by Fox5 news in an August report.

There was plenty of money in the sheriff’s travel account for the travel expenses, which is where the funds should have come from, Jordan said. To resolve the issue, Jordan wrote a personal check dated Aug. 8.

The unsigned July 18 memo to Lt. Col. Linda Jones from Capt. Michelle Walker directs the advance expense payment of $1,500 to come from the “U.S. Customs account” for one of the detectives; the detectives returned the remainder of the cash they didn’t use, Jordan said. All told, the trip cost $827.50 including the one hotel room the detectives shared for the four-day detail. The deputies received compensatory time off in lieu of pay, Jordan said.

The baseball team participated through the Fayette County Recreation Department, and Jordan insists the security was necessary. Similar security details were approved in the past at the sheriff’s department, including one for a local school chorus group that was staying in what was thought to be a less-than-squeaky-clean area of Savannah, Jordan said.

The detectives came in handy twice at the tournament, Jordan said, when the team in question, called the Georgia Reds, had two dangerous run-ins with a third team, on one occasion pulling out their bats after the game in a threatening manner. The Fayette detectives had to break up both incidents and diffuse the situation, Jordan said. The only presence from the local Tennessee police came after the second incident, Jordan indicated.

As for the security detail itself, Jordan said Sheriff Johnson approved the trip and he has evidence that Johnson was aware of the assignment. The two detectives spent four days providing security for the team in light of several threats the team made during ballgames, Jordan said.

Jordan claims the sheriff failed to follow the department’s own policies when he demoted Jordan three ranks to lieutenant and had the lieutenant colonel’s salary reduced by approximately 35 percent. Jordan contends the department’s policy manual outlines that no person can have their pay reduced by more than 10 percent, and the sheriff didn’t follow the department’s progressive discipline policy.

According to copies of the sheriff’s policy provided by Jordan, “The department advocates progressive discipline when applicable. The action taken will depend on the degree and the circumstances of the violation and shall be consistent with disciplinary action imposed on other employees disciplined in similar circumstances.”

The policy describes progressive discipline as “a process in which disciplinary action is taken in degrees of increasing severity.”

The department’s policy on a disciplinary salary reduction states that the reduction shall be capped at 10 percent. In Jordan’s case, he contends his pay was reduced by 35 percent.

“In 27 years [of working at the Sheriff’s Department] I had never been disciplined,” Jordan said. “This was the first time.”

Sheriff Johnson, who could not be interviewed in time for this story, has said previously that Jordan was demoted for violating department policies, though he would not specifically detail those violations. Before Jordan decided to retire, Johnson specifically noted that Jordan, who was being reassigned to the warrants division, would no longer have access to any of the drug seizure funds.

Jordan blames Johnson for waiting more than two months and never hearing Jordan’s appeal of the demotion and pay cut.

Jordan contends that he did not have carte blanche with the drug seizure accounts and that any improper expenditures would have been spotted by Lt. Col. Jones and thus brought to the sheriff’s attention.

As to the ongoing criminal investigation ordered up by Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard, Jordan said he thought the matter was so cut and dry that Ballard’s staff could have looked into it and determined there was nothing to investigate. Instead Ballard asked for a special prosecutor to conduct the investigation.

Jordan says he welcomes a criminal investigation, and the pep in his voice suggests he wants that criminal investigation to clear his name, or at least his legacy in law enforcement.

As to claims of excessive travel for Jordan and some detectives — some to Florida — during Jordan’s tenure that were cited in a forensic audit of the sheriff’s department ordered by the Fayette County Commission: Jordan said most of it was for additional training over and beyond what is provided by the state of Georgia and also in part related to the investigation of a 25-year-old murder case that netted a guilty plea from the suspect.

Some of that out-of-state training was conducted by the U.S. Justice Department to train sheriff’s officials how to handle drug seizure funds, Jordan noted.

Jordan received the highest award given by the sheriff’s office not once but twice: the most notable citation was for his work in reviving a long-cold murder case using DNA evidence that led to Carl Patton Jr., who pled guilty to the Fayette murder and the killings of four others. The other citation was for his service in coordinating the second largest cocaine and marijuana bust in the county’s history.

Jordan made detective in 1984 and took command of the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) in 1988. Part of the unit’s success with major crimes has been the fact that the detectives don’t give up and will work a case around the clock when necessary, Jordan said. In fact, Jordan said there’s only one open “unsolved” case out there from his tenure, and he feels confident that DNA evidence at the scene will ultimately solve that one, too. Because of the sensitive nature of that case, Jordan declined to discuss details.

Jordan said the events that transpired since his demotion, leading up to his retirement, weighed on him heavily at first. Part of the problem was that he couldn’t reconcile why he was punished so severely, he said.

“I didn’t really understand what was going on or what was going to happen,” he said.

Part of that is largely due to the close relationship Johnson and Jordan had forged through the years. By all accounts Jordan was the sheriff’s right-hand man in the department, having served 18 years as commander of the investigations department which in time became a high-profile position as the county transitioned from a rural to a suburban culture.

“For years Randall was kind of like a father to me,” Jordan said. “... I have never been anything but loyal to the sheriff. And everybody knows that.

“... The only reason I am doing this is my wife and her family and my family are insisting I tell my side of the story,” Jordan said.

Although he is clearly stung by his estrangement from the long-serving sheriff, Jordan said he isn’t getting into a name-calling contest. That is likely because of the possible civil suit Jordan may file against the department. Jordan admitted he doesn’t want people to write off his comments as “sour grapes.”

Jordan said though he doesn’t want his job back, he misses his friends at the sheriff’s department, who might find themselves in trouble with Johnson if they were ever seen associating with him. The department has, more or less, been a large chunk of his life and the only job he’s known.

Jordan has worked for the sheriff’s department since he was a teenager starting as a radio operator. A few months later, he was on a patrol beat.

Once considered the likely successor to Johnson as sheriff, Jordan now says he wants no part of that.

“If I didn’t have children that were school age, I’d consider it. ... My family is the most important thing to me.”

Despite all the good memories from his law enforcement career, Jordan said he no longer wants his old job back and he is content with moving on to the private sector, out of the public eye.

“I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Jordan said Monday.

“The blessing in disguise is the amount of stress that has been relieved of me. I always felt responsible for everything that happened in Fayette County,” Jordan said, noting that he was the “decision maker” for major crimes such as hostage situations, murder and the like. It was routine to get several night-time phone calls each week with such difficult decisions at the forefront.

Another thing he won’t miss?

“Having everything I do be reported in the newspaper every week,” Jordan said.

Bruce Jordan’s letter to the editor follows:

Up until now I have been ordered not to speak or tell my side of what happened that led to multiple demotions and a $35,000 pay cut for me. I don’t expect to change many minds but it’s important to my family that I tell my side of the story. While I was forbidden to speak, members of the Sheriff’s Department have spoken many times about it and the stories have become very slanted.

The baseball story

The Fayette County bulldogs won the county championship for the 13/14-year-old league at Kiwanis Field. They were a county recreation team and my son was on that team. If he hadn’t been, this probably would not be an issue.

The team had advanced to the State Championship playoffs which, as it happens, was played here in Fayette County at Whitewater High School. The Bulldogs had advanced to the game which would determine who would be the state champions. We were waiting to see who we would play for that championship.

The night before the championship I received a call from a parent on our team who was concerned about the team we would be playing the following night. She described them as a very rough team who had been causing trouble. She asked if we could have some deputies hang around during some of the game. This was easy to do because the school resource officers were out for the summer and spending their days assisting detectives. I called the SRO supervisor and asked them to have two of his deputies work evening shift and hang around Whitewater High School.

I learned the night of the state championship this team, which was out of Riverdale, was a very rough, roguish team, who liked to portray themselves as “gang bangers” before and after the game.

During the game they weren’t much better. The only difference was the umpires made them tuck their shirts in and button them but their language and antics were the same on the field. I’ve never seen an AABC baseball team conduct themselves the way this team did.

The Fayette Bulldogs beat them badly, 19-3. They were not happy about it and towards the end of the game the first base coach said to a runner on base: “That’s okay, when they get to Tennessee they ain’t gone have these cops with ‘em and we’ll show ‘em who they been messing with.” After the game I heard many threats and obscenities being yelled across the ballfield and in the parking lot.

The Riverdale team had placed second in the state behind the Bulldogs and were going to move on to Tennessee for the Southeast regionals along with us.

When I told the detectives I work with what had happened, many of them volunteered to go with the team to Tennessee. Some of the parents on the Bulldogs expressed concern about the trouble the team might encounter with this team in Tennessee.

The coach went so far as to book our hotel 30 miles away from the games so that we would not find ourselves in the same motel with this team. I told the coach that several deputies volunteered to go to Tennessee to protect the Fayette County families. I told him that, if the sheriff approved it, it might be possible to have them go along.

When I spoke to the sheriff about the situation he was initially apprehensive about letting them go. He eventually agreed and stated, “You’ll probably need them up there with that Clayton County bunch. They’ll probably all be carrying 9-millimeters.” His only other instruction to me was: “Don’t pay them anything extra for going up there.”

We had sent deputies with youth groups to Washington, D.C., Savannah and other places when requested to keep Fayette County kids safe on trips. This being the county’s recreational league team, I didn’t see this as being much different than that. The difference, as I realize now, is that my son was on this team and that made the presence of those detectives appear improper.

I went back to my office and told my detectives I could take two to Tennessee but they could not be paid overtime for the trip. Two detectives volunteered to go with us.

One of them asked to draw advanced travel funds for meal and lodging so that they would not have to pay the expenses out of their pocket. I told him yes but also told him to tell Capt. (Michelle) Walker that those expenses would be reimbursed either by the baseball association or the team.

Without my knowledge a memo was issued requesting money from the Customs federal drug seizure account to pay for that advance travel. I have no idea why that was done. We were in the beginning of our budget year and our travel budget should have had ample funds for this travel advance.

The first I learned the drug money had been used for the deputies’ travel expenses was shortly after we returned from the trip when Channel 5 news began calling about how the expenses had been paid. That was when I first learned the drug money had been used.

When I request money from any of the federal accounts it requires my initials in the top left hand corner of the memo. Not only does the memo that requested those funds not contain my initials, my name is nowhere on the memo.

The check that was issued as a result of that memo does not contain my initials, signature or any type authorization from me that the money be issued from the drug money.

Whoever called Channel 5 News knew before I did that the money had been taken from the federal account. The memo did, however, state that the money was to be reimbursed by the baseball team.

Without any conversation between me and the sheriff on the matter, the sheriff called me in and demoted me three ranks and cut my pay an unprecedented 35 percent.

There is a reason that the 35 percent pay cut is unprecedented: It is in direct conflict with the sheriff’s written policy in the standard operations procedure manual.

In this policy and procedures manual, Chapter 6, Section 3, Paragraph 10 states: “An employee’s salary may be reduced from one pay step to a lower pay step for disciplinary purposes. The salary reduction does not constitute a demotion in pay grade. The salary reduction shall not be more than 10 percent of the employee’s salary at the time of the reduction.”

That same section addresses the need for progressive discipline. I spent 27 years with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department and never received one single disciplinary action until this.

The fact that my salary reduction was completely in conflict with our departmental policy, and that I had no knowledge that the drug money check had ever been cut, were my main bases for appeal.

The sheriff refused to ever hear my appeal, which is also in conflict with our S.O.P. I’ve read various press reports on reasons the appeal has never been heard; “I’ve been out of town,” was one. The most confusing excuse I’ve read was “in light of the demotion” he hasn’t seen the need. The demotion is what I was appealing.

I know now that the sheriff knows I was not aware of a check being cut from the federal account because I know he had his attorney investigate the matter. That attorney was told by employees involved that I knew nothing about the memo being issued which caused the check to be cut or the fact that the check was ever cut.

The trips

About 75 percent of the trips listed in The Fayette Citizen were training and seminar trips. Once you have been in law enforcement more than 10 years you have had pretty much all of the training Georgia has to offer.

For over a decade we have used the federal drug seizure money to finance advanced training for our deputies out of state. The U.S. Department of Justice was fully aware of this.

Many of the trips were to enjoyable places. Anyone who ever attended a seminar or training conferences out of state knows the people that put these sessions on have them in attractive places to draw more attendees.

The other 25 percent of the trips were trips involving investigations, which is why my name appears very often on the list. The Carl Patton Jr. murders caused me to travel several times trying to find witnesses from 25 years ago. I also had to travel on the Charlie Mask murder.

Using the drug forfeiture fund for advanced training and to finance major investigations is a program that has gone on for around 12 years. The sheriff has always known that is one of the ways we used those funds.

The audit report that he signed every year contained the dollar amount being spent on training and he usually noticed if someone was gone for more than a couple of days and would ask where they were. To suggest that program went went on that long without his knowledge would be a very sad notion.

Special prosecutor

I look forward to someone from the outside coming in and looking at what has happened here. Unless people start changing their stories, I’m hoping he will get to the truth.

You have to admit it is a little ironic that our district attorney will drive all the way across the state to keep a child molester out of jail but will appoint a special prosecutor to look into my sending two deputies to protect 12 Fayette County families who had been threatened.

I suspect I became a political pawn who was sacrificed so the sheriff could smooth things over with the (county) commissioners. I gathered that from recent comments made by the sheriff in the paper.

There may be many people that agree with the sheriff “getting me out of the way,” but you have to consider that it sends a dangerous precedent to ignore your own departmental written policies in the name of politics.

Bloggers

Blog away. I quit reading them as soon as this went down because it was bad for my mental well-being. I’ve now convinced my daughter who is away at college to stop reading them as well. My sister still reads them to print certain things out for my attorney. She rarely tells me what is on there.

From what I’ve been told about half of them are disgruntled employees whom I’ve had to demote or transfer during the more than 20 years being the boss in a very volatile profession.

I take pride in the work that I’ve done for Fayette County over the past 27 years. I also take pride in the fact that I pursued law enforcement aggressively, took on those major cases and avoided never receiving a disciplinary action until this incident came along.

It was an incident for which I reimbursed the county as soon as I learned funds had been taken from the wrong account, and from which I received no personal benefit.

Bruce Jordan
Fayetteville, Ga.

Former Lt. Col. Jordan retired last month from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department after 27 years’ service.

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