No-Show Jobs?
The Destin Log ran an article about personnel changes at the Sheriff’s Department:
The fallout that began with Sheriff Charlie Morris’ arrest Friday continued Wednesday as interim Sheriff Ed Spooner eliminated two employee positions and reorganized several administrative offices.
Maj. Sabra Thornton, Morris’ chief of staff, was informed her position had been “discontinued due to the lack of current needs of the agency,” a news release said.
Randall Holcombe, the assistant director of administrative services, was told “his services are no longer needed for that position as it has been eliminated in order to streamline operations and reduce costs,” according to a second release.
…
Thornton was paid $83,200 annually and Holcombe $71,302, [Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michele] Nicholson said.
OK, these individuals weren’t fired and aren’t accused of anything, let’s be clear on that, their positions were deemed to be unnecessary. In looking at the people involved, especially Major Thornton, there seems to be some question as to what they actually did. These are very good salaries for the county which has a median income for a household of $41,474. [The median for individuals is $31K for men and $22K for women.]
As the Northwest Florida Daily News found out, the Feds control access to the public information: Sheriff’s records: ‘If they’ll let us release it, you’ll get it’. Until the Feds release the records there is no way of finding out what was going in the Sheriff’s Department.
4 comments
I’m baffled. This sounds like almost every Sheriff’s office in the South to me, they’re all corrupt as h*** and have sabra girlfriends on staff for big bucks and so forth. What got the Feds especially interested in Sheriff Morris? It’ll be interesting to find out… only thing I can guess is that he got in hock to some, let us call them “connected”, folks that the Feds were investigating at the time, and so the Feds pulled him in and are going to try to get him to “turn”…
– Badtux the Corruption Penguin
Badtux´s last blog post..2%
The plot thickens, because it was announced today that he would be represented by a Federal public defender, as in, he’s broke. He must owe big money, because he should be well off in this county on the money he makes in salary, and the money his wife has made in successful restaurants over the years.
I think the IRS got involved first. Morris suggested that the people who were kicking back the money to him declare the money as a charitable donation. If one of them got audited, they had no receipts, so the fun begins.
The raid at the Sheriff Department was an IRS/FBI joint operation.
If the IRS went after every Southern sheriff involved in kickbacks, there’d be no sheriffs left south of the Mason-Dixon line. Given the money thing, I’m betting he’s in hock big-time to some “connected” types that the FBI is investigating. Otherwise the IRS would have simply audited him, fined him for back taxes, and gone away after getting their money.
Guess we’ll find out in a year or so…
– Badtux the Crime Penguin
Badtux´s last blog post..The War on Drugs empties gun stores
It may turn out that one of the witnesses against Morris is actually in more trouble than Morris, and is cutting a deal. Anyone who went along with this scheme has to be considered “dirty” or too dumb to have a gun and badge.