The Rutherford County Sheriff's Department and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

MURFREESBORO, TN — The Rutherford County Sheriff's Department annus horribilis may have hit its low point Wednesday.

With Sheriff Robert Arnold jailed in Kentucky awaiting his federal trial on conspiracy and fraud and suspended from his job and paycheck by a Davidson County Chancellor pending an ouster suit, the troubled department was already in disarray.

A state comptroller's report seemingly corroborated many of the allegations made by federal prosecutors against Arnold and his associates related to their undisclosed connection with jailhouse vape supplier JailCigs, and alleged that a major in the department, Terry McBurney, a close associate and relative by marriage of Arnold, made false statements about his citizenship status on numerous federal immigration forms. McBurney, who was born in Ireland and became an American citizen in February, was indicted for unlawful procurement of naturalization, making false statements under oath relating to his application for U.S. citizenship and seven counts of wire fraud. He pleaded not guilt Thursday.

Meanwhile, one of Arnold's co-defendants in the federal case, Chief Deputy of Administration Joe Russell, was fired by the county Thursday. According to the Daily News Journal, Rutherford County Commissioner Robert Stevens sent a letter to acting department chief Randy Garrett asking him to fire Arnold and McBurney to restore confidence in the department.

At Thursday night's meeting, the commission voted unanimously to begin the process of finding an interim sheriff to serve until the next election or until Arnold is cleared of charges, if he is.

According to WTVF, Arnold himself is under suicide watch in his Kentucky jail and, despite asserting his innocence, is considering pleading guilty to get moved to a more comfortable federal facility. The U.S. Attorney indicated that it would accept a guilty plea from Arnold if he would accept the same sentence he would get at trial.

And, in a matter wholly unrelated to JailCigs, the state Department of Commerce and Insurance announced that the Rutherford County jail, which is run by the sheriff's department, failed its most recent inspection and could be decertified. During a September inspection, fire alarms in the kitchen were found to be deficient and only two officers were found to be supervising and managing around 200 female inmates. Those deficiencies were corrected by the time of a November follow-up, but one deficiency remained. The restraint chair in the booking room was not being checked within a 15-minute standard nor were suicide watches. The Tennessee Corrections Institute, which certifies the state's jails, recommends 4 to 5 of the new 12 officers be assigned to the booking room to help meet the standard.

The state Department of Commerce and Insurance's spokesperson told WKRN decertification can lead to increased insurance costs, potential federal litigation by inmates, immediate loss of any pending governmental contracts, and the mandatory loss for all annual TCI-required basic and in-service training for correctional employees.

“If a facility fails to meet all or some standards during an inspection then they have 60 days to correct the problem or request a plan of action to address problems which cannot be solved within that period of time,” he told the station.

The TCI Board of Control will meet December 7 to discuss the jail.

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