BUTTS COUNTY, Ga. — Authorities said a Monroe County deputy was still wearing a sheriff's office insignia when he was arrested on Friday. Investigators think he was also wearing it when he became caught up in their drug investigation in nearby Butts County.
Monroe County Sheriff Brad Freeman said the sheriff of Butts County, Gary Long, contacted him around 10 a.m. that day to tell him what his people had found.
In the course of a Butts County drug investigation, authorities uncovered that a deputy appeared to be involved in "illegal drug activity." Sheriff Long soon learned that deputy was Paul Nicholas Stewart.
The Monroe County Sheriff's Office said that within eight hours - and after offering some of their own investigators to assist - the now-former Monroe deputy was arrested by members of both agencies.
The department doesn't provide specifics on what exactly Stewart was doing when he was arrested. However, they do say he appears to have been wearing an insignia identifying him as a deputy with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office when his alleged actions caught up with him.
The charges themselves also fill in some other gaps and suggest that Stewart was in possession of controlled substances of various schedules with the intent to distribute.
The release from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office specifically states that the charge involved "Schedule III, IV or V" drugs but doesn't specify if he had was found with one or all of these during their investigation.
It's also not yet clear what the drugs actually were or what led investigators to this unsettling discovery.
Another charge, use of a communication facility in commission of a felony involving a controlled substance, also suggests that Stewart used a phone or other communication device to aid in apparent drug dealing.
And while the sheriff's office plans to release more information further along in their investigation, Monroe County Sheriff Freeman had a very pointed message for Stewart and anyone else who plans to take such actions under his watch.
“It goes without saying that I am extremely disappointed that this incident occurred and I do not and never will condone this sort of behavior in any of my employees," Freeman said. "Stewart is being dealt [with] in accordance with the law.”
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