PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. — The personnel file of a Paulding County Sheriff’s deputy shows a record of reprimands and commendations going back to 2015. Now he is under investigation by the GBI in an excessive use-of-force case from last year.
Dashcam video of that incident from March 2022 was released last week. It shows the deputy stopping a pedestrian who, the deputy said later, looked similar to the description of someone who’d been breaking into cars in the area.
In the video, the man appears to ignore the deputy’s commands as the deputy stands behind him and tries to handcuff him; the deputy then pulls the man backward, around and down, slams him onto the pavement, and gets on top of him.
The man was admitted to a hospital for injuries; he was later cleared of any connection to the car break-ins; he is charged with obstruction--accused of not obeying the deputy.
The Sheriff’s Office concluded the deputy did not use excessive force; the GBI is now conducting an independent investigation. The deputy is on administrative duty.
According to the deputy's personnel file, in 2015, his superiors reprimanded him in writing, saying that he “can be unnecessarily overly aggressive... (he) was recently written up for aggressive behavior when dealing with an inmate."
He was advised to undergo anger management counseling and threatened with termination.
The deputy's personnel file shows he's been reprimanded at least ten times, beginning in 2015 and most recently in November 2022, for minor to more serious violations.
For example, in 2016, he left a trainee alone in the book-in room for extended periods.
In 2018 he left drug evidence out in the open in the Sheriff's Office overnight.
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In 2020, he arrested a man for simple battery in a domestic dispute but failed to get an arrest warrant before the deadline under the law, so the suspect was released from jail and allowed to return home.
In 2015, he left a jail phone inside an inmate’s cell, telling his supervisors later, according to his file, “I guess it slipped my mind.”
In 2015, he took a jail car without permission to run personal errands while off-duty.
This past November, he was attending a training session and called a supervisor to say that the session would last until almost the end of his shift. The supervisor permitted him to go straight home after the training session. But the training session ended early in the afternoon, and others in that class returned to work for the remainder of their shifts that day. The reprimand said the deputy had been “misleading and dishonest to his supervisor,” which the deputy disputed.
Charles Rambo, with Criminal Justice Learning Online, is a retired Fulton County deputy who now trains law enforcement on how to help officers and deputies who violate policy from becoming repeat violators.
Supervisors, Rambo said, are key.
"When you recognize that there are problems, did you get the person the type of training that they needed to remediate the behavior? Did they have a policy that they should have abided by to conform their behavior towards performing duties?
Rambo said the deputy's violations over the years might indicate a pattern of carelessness in failing to observe the Sheriff's policies. That pattern, he said, may have contributed to how the deputy detained this man.
"If they continuously engage in that pattern and practice.” Rambo said, “it's time to show them the way out the door, so that doesn't become a liability for your agents, or to the public that you're serving."
The deputy’s file also includes commendations from the public and his superiors.
In 2016, a supervisor wrote a letter to the Sheriff nominating the deputy for Employee of the Quarter. “He has shown exemplary professionalism and leadership,” wrote Lt. Shawn Godsey, “he has improved in all areas and (has performed) beyond expectations.” The file does not indicate if the deputy received the honor.
A Georgia state representative, Rep. J. Collins, (R) Villa Rica, wrote a letter in 2021 praising the deputy and others who were involved in a high-speed chase to catch a criminal suspect, calling what they did "hard work and bravery... we truly appreciate the dedicated work you do... to keep the people of our state safe.”
He was one of the deputies who, in 2021, responded to reports about a man outside a home who was armed with a knife and possibly a gun, threatening to turn the weapons on himself. The letter of commendation in the deputy’s file says he and the others helped save the man without harming anyone.
The file includes thanks from a Paulding County school bus driver, who wrote in 2021 that the deputy showed up to block traffic at one of her stops and helped her and the students.
And he has been receiving high marks on his annual job performance reviews.
In 2021, his supervisors rated his fitness for promotion to a specialized unit; he was seeking a promotion. They concluded that he needed “much improvement,” in both competence and dependability. They noted, for example, that he wasn’t showing up for the training he needed. Later, however, the deputy was promoted, and assigned to the Special Response Team.
The Paulding County Sheriff's Office is not commenting on any part of the deputy’s personnel file while the case from last year is under investigation by the GBI.