ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga — Seven Rockdale County investigators are on administrative leave after allegations of cheating on an online training test.
The Rockdale County sheriff suspended the investigators with pay pending an internal investigation.
Rockdale County Chief Deputy Scott Freeman spoke exclusively with Channel 2’s Mark Winne about the allegations. He told Winne one of the department's sergeants heard about this and did the right thing by bringing it to a senior commander.
“We learned that seven of our investigators had allegedly cheated on an online training class,” said Freeman. “These are seasoned deputies that are veterans to the Sheriff's Office.”
Freeman said Sheriff Eric Levett placed seven of their 26 investigators on administrative leave. That’s almost half of the 15 assigned to the general investigations unit that handles murders, robberies, burglaries, and rapes. Freeman said the investigators who were suspended are the backbone of their investigative unit and the suspension hurts the department.
Freeman said the internal affairs unit is investigating the cheating allegations against all seven. The allegation says they passed around a list of answers to an online test about changes to state law.
“We had information that an investigator took the online test, wrote the answers down and then subsequently passed those test answers on to other investigators,” said Freeman.
Freeman said the Sheriff's Office is moving pieces around to take up the slack in ongoing investigations. He said 112 cases have been reassigned and he has alerted the district attorney in case the probe could have ramifications for cases the seven are working now, or have worked in the past.
“It will be difficult, but we are certainly prepared to do what is necessary because the operations of the sheriff’s office must go on and they will go on,” said Freeman. “We want to make sure that we do not skip a beat when it comes to providing services to our citizens.”
The district attorney told Channel 2 Action News that three of the deputies were supposed to appear before a grand jury next week. Those cases will now be delayed.
Freeman said the implicated investigators were notified one by one, the last at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Freeman said a supervisor intercepted the alleged notes before one investigator took the test. According to Freeman, that investigator did not pass.
WSBTV
