The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI have turned up no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in an investigation of the Wakulla County Sheriff’s office. Sheriff Charlie Creel has long denied complaints raised by whistle blowers last year, and now he says he’s ready to move forward.
“I look at it as an audit. They came in there and did an audit of the Wakulla County Sheriff’s office and we passed that audit with a grade of 100 percent,” Creel says.
Creel believes the complaints made last year by a group of whistle blowers were politically motivated and an abuse of state protections.
“This investigation has cost untold how many thousands of dollars, man hours, tax payers’ money, staff time to pull public records to give to both the FBI and FDLE,” Creel says.
A group of employees raised concerns about what they see as the lax discipline of an under sheriff, and the misuse of inmate labor. Whistle blowers say the sheriff allowed a jailed sex offender to work in civilian clothes at a high school event. Creel says he didn’t know the inmate was a sex offender and says he gave the inmate a change of clothes to avoid causing students concern.
