one of the things that when I've just
asked you right out of the gate so
committee beaten you have taken we have
yeah briefly I'll just say that we did
the investigation we called in over
seventeen people I believe it was that
were said to be present at this this
place where the allegation occurred and
overwhelmingly the investigation
concludes and shows that what was
alleged did not occur now was there a
comment made absolutely but a comment
that can be addressed with an oral an or
Weber man and that's what we're gonna do
but in addition to that I've also talked
to my all my chain of command I had a
meeting yesterday every top-level
official in this agency and went over
all our policies in sexual harassment
including the county policy and my
expectations of this agency and we have
a zero-tolerance policy on on offenses
like that and we're also reaching out to
our corporate human resources for
sensitivity training for our whole
agency including command staff including
myself because I want people to
understand the message of what we will
tolerate and what we won't tolerate but
what I won't tolerate is an outside
entity like an attorney's office or an
association such as tmpa try to make the
decisions based on what they want just
at a retaliation or for two deputies at
the time that lied and let me go back
and explain that okay some time ago I
learned of a text threat that was that
they're involving a certain unit or k9
unit and in this text thread I was told
there were some disturbing information
when you say disturbing first of all
this was work-related and it was
work-related because this was a text
dream that a sergeant had included all
his personnel and k9 and duty
work-related issues were discussed on
this text stream so that's why it was
work-related and then it was also
subject to open records requests that
means Tony if you want to see those
texts you'd make an open records request
and if I know that that is out there if
I know that is out there I have a duty
to see what's on that text to make sure
there's no policy violation in that
because when you make an open records
request I'm gonna be the one putting
that and then when you see what's on
this text thread the homophobic slurs
making fun of special-needs children by
the very to people
that were terminating by the way they
weren't terminated because of the threat
they were terminated because when they
were called in for the investigation
when I found out about this threat
immediately we asked about this threat
they didn't know we knew about the
threat when I asked about it they both
lied and said there was no such threat
those two Aaron Skinner and Jeremy
Stewart lied about the existence of this
threat and I can understand why when you
look at it the homophone homophobic
slurs and making fun of the
special-needs children and making fun of
chain-of-command one being commander
Deaton he was obviously a target so this
is the concern I had and I had a duty to
do that so that's this is how that's all
started absolutely and not only that I
don't think it's going to stop I think
this attorney who works for tmpa and
tmpa has been all over this as well and
it's funny because T APA makes this
statement yesterday on your news station
on KVUE and says something to the effect
I'm gonna look at a note to quote to the
effect of forgive me I it was pretty
upsetting in that it shows a negative
attitude toward women that shot should
not be present in law enforcement yet
they were fighting for two employees who
went well beyond what commander Deaton
did in his because he didn't do what
commander Deaton did not do what was
alleged according to the investigation
that I saw so the investigation showed
that he simply went in there and may and
made a comment that in reference to the
show that we were talking about everyone
knows about and basically said is
anybody sleeping with the producer and
when he said that some people will
question and ask first of all that was
inappropriate or appropriate I will tell
you that if he has information on that
and thinks that could be occurring he
has a duty to see if that's good now
here's where I differ in commander
Dean's approach to this
he should have not asked that question
in open forum like he did he should have
done that in a personal setting with
leaders in that organization and this is
why he is getting a oil reprimand but
he's also getting an oil reprimand just
like nine other people did in that k9
because everybody else that did that in
that texture it got an oil reprimand
except to and they got it they didn't
get a normal reprimand because they lied
about the existence of this threat
simple as that had they come in and told
the truth and said yes this is what
happened this is what we got got then we
would have they would have been still
employed here and scaring Jimmy Stewart
but instead Aaron Skinner and generous
to want to talk about homosexuality
sending pictures of nudity and about our
command staff with just inappropriate
pictures talking about special-needs
children making fun of them with memes
and there is no room for that but that
can be addressed that can be addressed
with the oil reprimand that can be
addressed with sensitivity training and
not to do again and if it occurs again
they would be terminated but instead
they chose to come in here
Aaron Skinner and Jimmy Stewart and said
there's no such existence they alive
there's no room in law enforcement for
an integrity issue in fact the public
would be upset with me had I let them
stay employed because of their integrity
issue and I would agree with them when
you lie in this organization we don't
tolerate it and the other problem is is
you have organizations that are outside
such as tmpa and rubber mccabe who is
getting paid by TMA to fight for these
two people he has a financial interest
in this subs of course and he's making
post about me in a negative kind of tone
without even calling me first he
represents people that are going to be
employed or terminate or discipline to
this agency and he's making public post
on his professional firm and instead of
picking up the phone like he's done many
times before but he's taking this
personal for some reason I'm not
suggesting either why I'm just
suggesting that that was the comment
that was made and in in tone with you
compare that with the allegation that
was presented to you and to everybody
else I've rubberband gave mail or two it
is apples and oranges completely
different but make no mistake I do not
condone even that comment and if it
wasn't a negative tone and but it would
still fit within our policy and when we
talk about the procedure we did in
disciplining with an oral reprimand does
that make sense
is is anybody sleeping with this
producer yes yes that's correct
for lying yes and they would have been
with the other nine had they just been
truthful right but it also sounds like
and again I just want to ask this you
are also saying to your staff here and
now you guys know I'm not saying that I
already said it yesterday I was very
clear and I've even talked to some
command staff since then and they are
crystal clear of what's going on now we
have to pass that down to our
organization and that's their orders and
that's their instructions and that's
that's my expectation otherwise there'll
be other people that are not employed
here and again I want to reiterate that
Robert McCabe tmpa is not done with
Williams County Sheriff's Office they
will do whatever it is they can to put a
stain on this agency because let me
remind you since I've been here two and
a half years we've done a lot of changes
a lot of things I'm very proud of many
things that we've done for the community
they've reached out in the community and
when you hold people accountable for
their actions and the good ol boy system
that I've always talked about initially
we knew who those good ol boys were and
we got rid of them for whatever reasons
that were legit legit and legal now I
don't know who those people are and
those are the people working behind the
scenes trying to get any little whisper
of a rumor and opening that rumor up
into a big ordeal that's just not
accurate at all like in this case and
they will use that to try to destroy
sheriff Cody the chain of command and
whoever else is siding with without my
organization and that's their intent
make no mistake this is not the last you
heard of them and when you do I'm gonna
remind you this conversation right here
and I'm at call Katie and ask you to
play that part again please well it's a
zero-tolerance policy there's there's no
I mean we have a policy and that we read
over it they read over it and they
understand should they violate that
policy would be no there'll be no just a
zero-tolerance policy but even more than
that we're reaching out to HR or human
resource director or in County our core
because obviously we have an issue here
when we talk about it k9 checks the text
of nine and then the commander involved
as well if that's the one you want to
count as well so if we notice this issue
maybe we reach outside our organization
for that help in that sensitivity
training and I have no problem with that
and that's what we're doing I think
that's a good approach on our part