[JonInMiddleGA]

Not directly related to the courthouse shooting, but close enough that the hits just keep on coming ...

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/12885927.htm
Georgia deputy arrested in Alabama on cocaine charge
MOBILE, Ala. - A Fulton County, Ga., sheriff's lieutenant who works as a supervisor at the county jail has been arrested and charged in Alabama with trafficking cocaine, authorities said Wednesday.

Dwayne Turner, 40, of Jonesboro, Ga., was arrested by FBI agents and Mobile County sheriff's deputies on Tuesday, FBI special agent in charge Debra K. Mack said in a statement.

Turner, who was suspended from the sheriff's department 15 months ago for authorizing a rap video in the jail, was arrested in the parking lot of a restaurant near the intersection of Interstate 85 and East Avenue in Montgomery.

A criminal complaint against Turner was filed Oct. 5 before U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Cassady in Mobile, charging Turner with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

The complaint resulted from a joint probe by the Mobile County sheriff's office and the FBI in Mobile, the statement said.

If convicted, Turner could be sentenced to a maximum 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine.

Sgt. Nikita Hightower, a spokeswoman for Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman, said the drug case was unrelated to the jail. Hightower said an internal investigation would be launched and that Turner, an employee since 1991, probably would be suspended indefinitely once all the information was received from the FBI.

She said the department first learned of the investigation against Turner when he was arrested.

According to the FBI affidavit, a man arrested in April with about a half-pound of cocaine identified Turner as a supplier of both cocaine and marijuana, which the informant said he sold in the Mobile area.

The informant, whose name was blacked out in a copy of the affidavit obtained by The Associated Press, arranged a meeting with Turner at a Montgomery restaurant on Oct. 4. There, the informant purchased a Zip-Loc plastic bag of about 4 ounces of cocaine for $3,000, the affidavit indicated.

In the summer of 2004, former Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett suspended Turner and three other deputies for their roles in allowing rapper Clifford Harris, known as T.I., to use a maximum security cell, guards and inmates as props for a video.

Barrett at first fired Turner, but Hightower said the termination was reduced to a suspension.