August 2024

3 entries from August 2024.

San Diego County sheriff's deputy Jeremiah Flores fractured a handcuffed detainee's spine, then falsified his report

On August 29, 2024, San Diego County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jeremiah Flores shoved a handcuffed, non-resisting pretrial detainee headfirst into the wall of a courthouse holding cell, fracturing the man's spine and causing a head injury that required surgery. Flores rendered no aid, left the injured man on the cell floor for more than two hours, and wrote in his incident report that no force had been used. He was later convicted of federal civil-rights and records-falsification charges and sentenced to 57 months in prison.

St. Johns County officials and operatives mailed counterfeit GOP voter guide to deceive Republican primary voters

On or about August 9, 2024, five people -- St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold, County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst, St. Augustine Beach Commissioner and then-Mayor Dylan Rumrell, political consultant Briana Jordan, and Jamie Lynn Johnson -- allegedly produced and mailed tens of thousands of counterfeit voter guides to St. Johns County Republican primary voters ahead of the August 20, 2024 primary. The guide copied the St. Johns County GOP's logo and branding and falsely presented itself as the party's official endorsement slate, but promoted a different set of candidates, including Whitehurst and Rumrell themselves, and omitted the funding-source disclaimer required under Florida law. In July 2026, Florida prosecutors filed conspiracy and unauthorized-voter-guide charges against all five, with an added evidence-tampering felony charge against Jordan.

Shelby County, Tenn. deputy misused plate-tracking database to track ex-wife 100+ times; charged with stalking, harassment

On August 8, 2024, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office relieved deputy Thadius Gordon, 38, of duty with pay and he was charged with stalking and harassment after an audit found his ex-wife's license plate had been searched roughly 20 times over a four-day span and more than 100 times in total through a law-enforcement plate-tracking database. Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner confirmed the database access and said the office was reviewing its policies; Gordon's attorney disputed the stalking characterization, saying Gordon's contact concerned her safety rather than surveillance.