Suspended Sheriff Robert Arnold Hit by Scathing Comptroller's Report

NASHVILLE, TN — In an interview with state investigators, now-suspended Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold said “The sheriff is exempt from all policies and procedures.”

In a report issued Wednesday, the state said "Not so fast."

Arnold — who, having violated conditions of his pre-trial release, is jailed in Kentucky awaiting trial on a 14-count federal indictment and was suspended from his post and stripped of his pay by a Nashville chancellor this week — could provide no documentation or proof of his assertion that he did not have to follow county procedures and the Comptroller's office says that's not good, because it appears he violated many of them.

Most of the findings in the report center on the relationship Arnold and his co-defendant and Chief Deputy of Administration Joe Russell had with Georgia-based vape supplier JailCigs, which also prompted the federal fraud and corruption charges.

Arnold failed to disclose his conflict of interest with the company, even as he and his wife received $66,790 from the company from December 2013 through April 2015 and Russell received $52,000.

The report says Arnold and Russell violated county purchasing policies by failing to solicit bids.

In addition, the comptroller found that a deputy lied on state and federal forms about being an American citizen and did not, in fact, become a citizen until after the investigation began.

Image via Rutherford County Sheriff's Office