Twenty-four.
That’s the number of Richmond County Sheriff’s deputies who have been arrested and fired since September 2021.
The common factor?
“It simply appears to be all about the money,” Sheriff Richard Roundtree said at a Tuesday news conference.
Roundtree called the news conference to discuss the third deputy to be arrested and fired this month, Arrington Mursier.
A watchful colleague reported seeing Mursier leave his work station, go to another pod and release an inmate.
“The deputy and the inmate entered a utility closet and an unknown object was passed to the inmate,” the sheriff said.
The cell block was put on lockdown and investigators discovered in the inmate’s cell a large quantity of K2, or synthetic marijuana sometimes known as spice, Roundtree said.
The sheriff’s office was unaware till now just how lucrative moving contraband into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center is, he said.
“The K2 recovered from the inmate’s cell had the estimated street value of $195,000,” Roundtree said.
A dishonest deputy can make more than $2,000 for a single “drop” of contraband at the jail, he said.
A search of Mursier’s home revealed additional drugs packaged for potential distribution, he said.
Mursier as well as the unidentified inmate were charged with possession of a Schedule 1 narcotic and conspiracy to distribute narcotics. Mursier, a jailer for just over a year, was also charged with violating his oath of office.
Roundtree said he expects more arrests to follow from an ongoing investigation into drug-smuggling at the jail.
“We as a command staff constantly ask ourselves, are we doing something wrong? Are we missing something in the hiring process?” Rountree said. “All of these issues have been exhaustively addressed and discussed, and yet misconduct is still occurring, despite the fact that deputies are consistently being arrested and losing their careers.”
The 28-year-old Mursier’s salary was in the low $40,000s, according to city records. Little is known about his background. A Facebook profile showed he attended Augusta Christian Schools at some point and liked basketball.
Of the 24 arrested deputies, eight were for charges not related to their jobs. Ten of the remaining 16 were for bringing contraband into the jail. At least eight have been arrested for excessive use of force.
Mursier’s arrest follows the June 15 arrest of Deputy Joseph Clarke, 29, for sexual battery and aggravated sodomy against an employee in a jail interview room.
