Cleaning House

There`s a shakeup in local county government, three officers are let go as a new Interim Sheriff takes over the Jasper County Sheriff`s Department Interim Sheriff Archie Dunn has decided to not renew the commissions of Captain Tony Colememan and his wife stephanie a deputy of the department. Also captain jeff carr resigned on Tuesday. Carr as you may remember submitted a bill for more than 1700 dollars in reimbursements to the state for a prisoner transport. His wife, also works for the department, and accompanied him to Florida. The couple spent two nights at hotels in Panama City and Tampa Bay. The state has refused to pay the bill. The other two officers Tony and Stephanie Coleman were given hand delivered letters yesterday that would not keep them as deputy sheriffs. Coleman was suspended last October for allegedly taking money collected for the Salvation Army during the Route 66 Music Festival. His wife Stephanie is accused of submitted double the overtime hours than she actually worked. Coleman`s attorney Bill Fleischaker says his client was unfairly terminated without any reasoning. "Obviously there`s been a lot of turmoil in the department. At least in Tony`s case. He`s facing charges. We`re going to have a trial on those charges in September. I fully expected him to be found not guilty in those charges. So if he`s being dismissed based on the things he`s charged once we have the trial and he`s aquitted then he should be hired back,"said Fleischaker. "Its extremely difficult because there are other things that I need to be tending to also. I knew personel would be a problem. I suppose a fair way of doing it. It just occurred far quicker than I expected,"said Dunn. Interim Sheriff Dunn says the two Captain positions will be filled by the end of the week. Reported By: Brad Douglas