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This Virginia story wouldn't happen here, would it?
Excerpted from the Roanoke Times:
Ashley Hunt lingered at the edge of the crime scene, not far from the body of a burglar who dropped face-down in the road from a homeowner's bullet in his neck.
She was 13 and arrived at the homicide with her father, Ewell Hunt, then a lieutenant at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
Her appearance there inaugurated a law enforcement love affair that began with a part-time sheriff's office job as a clerk when she was 14 and, once her father became Franklin County's elected sheriff in 2008, produced a gun-carrying, uniform-wearing, tantrum-throwing teen who deputies nicknamed "Hurricane Ashley."
Ashley Hunt, now 19, captured a starring role in a special grand jury's seven-month probe of her work hours that led to her father's arrest in December on a misdemeanor charge of failing to keep proper records. She endangered herself and the public and left the sheriff's office chain of command in tatters, the panel's report said ...
While working as a civilian clerk, the teenager invited herself to investigators' confidential meetings, hung a police radio on her belt, took over the duties of assigning uniforms, badges and patrol cars, and was so quick to anger that seasoned deputies tried to avoid provoking her, according to the grand jury and those she worked with.
Sheriff Hunt, 55, did little to stop her, and fired two of his top commanders, Carter and Allan Arrington, when they questioned Ashley's work and hours, according to Carter. Hunt said in May their firings had nothing to do with his daughter's work hours. He didn't elaborate, saying it was a private personnel issue. Carter, 37, a Roanoke police officer until Hunt became sheriff and hired him, remains unemployed ...
She spent little time on her assigned duties, ordering uniforms and cataloging inventory, Carter said, concentrating instead on what the deputies were doing.
Three months into the new fiscal year in 2008, she had nearly depleted the $37,000 uniform budget, stocking up on needless badges and leather belts, Carter said. When her supervisor asked her to move the uniforms to another room, she dumped them on floor and left, Carter said.
She preferred attending meetings about investigations, hanging around the office with commanders or riding on patrols and stakeouts with deputies.
"She wanted to be present for everything we did," Carter said. "It was a daily struggle to try and appease her."
When the department ordered new cars, Ashley insisted on driving two sergeants to Richmond to pick them up. She paid for the trip with office credit cards and signed for the cars.
Back at the sheriff's office, the lieutenant in charge of patrol assigned the new vehicles. The young woman interrupted him in front of his deputies and said Deputy Jonathan Agee would get one of the coveted new cruisers.
She'd been seen spending a lot time with Agee, a 29-year-old drug investigator, according to the grand jury and people who were interviewed ...
Once, while Agee was supposed to be watching a drug deal in Rocky Mount, he and Ashley were eating at Taco Bell 20 miles away in Collinsville, Carter said.
Excerpted from the Roanoke Times:
Ashley Hunt lingered at the edge of the crime scene, not far from the body of a burglar who dropped face-down in the road from a homeowner's bullet in his neck.
She was 13 and arrived at the homicide with her father, Ewell Hunt, then a lieutenant at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
Her appearance there inaugurated a law enforcement love affair that began with a part-time sheriff's office job as a clerk when she was 14 and, once her father became Franklin County's elected sheriff in 2008, produced a gun-carrying, uniform-wearing, tantrum-throwing teen who deputies nicknamed "Hurricane Ashley."
Ashley Hunt, now 19, captured a starring role in a special grand jury's seven-month probe of her work hours that led to her father's arrest in December on a misdemeanor charge of failing to keep proper records. She endangered herself and the public and left the sheriff's office chain of command in tatters, the panel's report said ...
While working as a civilian clerk, the teenager invited herself to investigators' confidential meetings, hung a police radio on her belt, took over the duties of assigning uniforms, badges and patrol cars, and was so quick to anger that seasoned deputies tried to avoid provoking her, according to the grand jury and those she worked with.
Sheriff Hunt, 55, did little to stop her, and fired two of his top commanders, Carter and Allan Arrington, when they questioned Ashley's work and hours, according to Carter. Hunt said in May their firings had nothing to do with his daughter's work hours. He didn't elaborate, saying it was a private personnel issue. Carter, 37, a Roanoke police officer until Hunt became sheriff and hired him, remains unemployed ...
She spent little time on her assigned duties, ordering uniforms and cataloging inventory, Carter said, concentrating instead on what the deputies were doing.
Three months into the new fiscal year in 2008, she had nearly depleted the $37,000 uniform budget, stocking up on needless badges and leather belts, Carter said. When her supervisor asked her to move the uniforms to another room, she dumped them on floor and left, Carter said.
She preferred attending meetings about investigations, hanging around the office with commanders or riding on patrols and stakeouts with deputies.
"She wanted to be present for everything we did," Carter said. "It was a daily struggle to try and appease her."
When the department ordered new cars, Ashley insisted on driving two sergeants to Richmond to pick them up. She paid for the trip with office credit cards and signed for the cars.
Back at the sheriff's office, the lieutenant in charge of patrol assigned the new vehicles. The young woman interrupted him in front of his deputies and said Deputy Jonathan Agee would get one of the coveted new cruisers.
She'd been seen spending a lot time with Agee, a 29-year-old drug investigator, according to the grand jury and people who were interviewed ...
Once, while Agee was supposed to be watching a drug deal in Rocky Mount, he and Ashley were eating at Taco Bell 20 miles away in Collinsville, Carter said.
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