False information about equipment giveaway to Jasper hurt Hodge in election, woman claims
During a meeting that got heated at times, a Shady Grove woman told the Jones County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Joe Berlin that they should issue a public apology for helping to mislead voters before the recent county elections.
Berlin and the board knew that former Sheriff Alex Hodge did not give away equipment to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department after he was voted out of office in 2019, but they did nothing to squelch the rumors and direct accusations that were made during the most recent race for sheriff, Karen Royals said.
She presented board members and others with a folder containing 43 pages of official documents, email correspondence, news reports, and screenshots of Facebook posts to support her claims, and she went over all of them while standing a couple of feet from Berlin, who sat there in silence.
Royals filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the board a week before the general election and was provided with a 23-page inventory list from the Jones County Sheriff’s Department. The document showed items that were highlighted in blue as “Assets given to Jasper County Sheriff Dept before approved by Jones County BOS.”
The equipment that was in question was valued at a little more than $384,000 and included a couple of Chevrolet Tahoes, tag readers, radar/speed trailers and other items that are used by interstate drug-interdiction officers.
Royals followed with an email asking if the clerk was sure that the “stuff highlighted in blue was actually given to Jasper County or is that the stuff that Alex requested permission from the BOS to give to Jasper County but his request was refused?”
When she didn’t get a response, she called and was put on speakerphone, she said, then when she asked that question, heard someone say, “Oh, my God ... then hung up,” Royals told the board.
“This 23-page false document provided by the Board of Supervisors is why we’re here today.”
She told the board of correspondence and conversations she’s had with current and former JCSD employees and other county employees, including outgoing Supervisor Johnny Burnett and his successor George Walters. No one had any evidence or proof of the equipment in question going to Jasper County other than “some evidence bags that were obsolete,” she said.
Royals referred to comments that were made in debates and candidate forums and on the JCSD Facebook page that showed Berlin was still using the reported giveaway of equipment to Jasper County as a campaign issue against Hodge, who lost to Berlin by only 255 votes in a four-man race a month ago. One piece of evidence she provided was a Leader-Call article from a January 2020 board meeting in which Berlin was quoted as telling the board that the equipment has “all been returned now.”
“What are you asking this board to do?” Chancery Clerk Bart Gavin asked.
Royals said that supervisors “owe Alex Hodge, (Jasper County Sheriff) Randy Johnson, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors and the citizens an apology for putting out false information and allowing Sheriff Berlin to dispense false information,” Royals said.
Hodge and Johnson may want to run for office again, “and this totally false information that’s out in the public can be used to create a false narrative, just like Sheriff Berlin did in the last election,” she said. “People deserve to know the truth.”
Chief Financial Officer Charles Miller pointed to a Oct. 7, 2019 request from Hodge to donate equipment to the Jasper County department, and the board denied the request.
“Did Alex Hodge not intend to give away this equipment to Jasper County?” Miller asked.
Royals responded that “intent” to donate isn’t the same as actually donating.
“And why did it not happen?” the normally mild-mannered Miller snapped back. “Because this board didn’t allow it to happen.”
That’s when acting board President Phil Dickerson stepped in and said the board would take Royals’ request under advisement.
“Please get back to me ASAP so I’ll know what measures to take next,” she said.
During her presentation of a half-hour or so, Royals told the board that she had also been in contact with the Secretary of State’s Office, the Ethics Commission and the State Auditor’s Office.
“Have you been to the governor’s office?” Supervisor Larry Dykes asked.
Royals responded, “I don’t appreciate the sarcasm,” then added, “We can go right after the meeting. You want to ride with me?”
Dykes said, “Let’s go.”
All of the equipment had been in inventory at the Jones County Sheriff’s Department when Berlin took office in January 2020, but Berlin continued to campaign on the notion that Hodge had donated the equipment to Jasper County, Royals said. She showed requests and correspondence with other county officials to clarify that point, but it was just before noon on Election Day when she finally received an email from a county clerk showing that the items were in inventory in January 2020.
“Some of the items may or may not have been moved to Jasper County and then moved back,” according to a written statement from Miller. “There is really no documented proof of this either way, just hearsay.
“However, when inventory was taken for the sheriff’s department in January 2020, after Joe Berlin came into office, all items were accounted for.”
Jasper County board attorney William Ruffin sent a letter to Jones County board attorney Danielle Ashley that was dated Dec. 1. “Sheriff Johnson wishes that I inform you that he received no assets from the Jones County Sheriff’s Department as alleged,” it read, in part. “He has requested that if you have any receipts or evidence these assets were transferred that you send them to me for further investigation.
“He does recall that Sheriff Hodge had asked him about transferring some inventory items used by the department that Sheriff Berlin was closing down, but later told Sheriff Johnson that the board had tabled the matter and was not inclined to do it; however, none of the equipment was received by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department.”
Robert Little, who was with the Jones County Sheriff’s Department for almost 12 years and has been with the Jasper department since 2020, was with Royals but didn’t speak to the board. He did, however, write a letter to the board dated Nov. 20 that offered his first-hand perspective.
“Of the items reported to be given to Jasper County, I am only aware of one listed item that was ever physically in Jasper County,” Little wrote, in part. “That s one of the LPR tag readers. One of these was positioned on I-59 in Jasper County and one was positioned on I-59 in Pearl River County.”
He then explained how the tag readers work and assist with drug interdiction, then noted that both were “intentionally positioned far enough away from Jones County to allow narcotics/interdiction officers enough time to respond to I-59 to locate the vehicle in the event an email alert is received. This is common for departments using these systems all across the nation, and both stayed positioned outside of the county for the majority of the time we had them.”
Both were secured at the department’s training center “PRIOR to the change of administration on Jan. 5, 2020 at midnight,” he wrote.
Time-stamped images were taken of all the inventory at the department and the training center just before the transfer of power, Royals told the board.
“We went to great lengths to not only make sure the inventory was accurate, but to document the location and condition of items such as these,” Little wrote. “ALL of these items were at the Jones County Sheriff’s Department Training Center at midnight on Jan. 5, 2020, and NONE of the items listed were ever transferred, or taken, to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department. It is difficult for me to understand how or why an official document could be released by an employee of Jones County containing blatantly false information. I truly hope the Board of Supervisors will investigate the cause of this, and appropriate actions will be taken to determine what other false information might have been provided to the public.”
Royals is on the agenda to meet with the board again in its Dec. 18 meeting.
Justin Pitts then talked to the board about an ongoing issue he has with “a couple who stole me blind” while he was undergoing and recovering from heart surgery. Livestock and a family heirloom gold watch were among the items stolen from him, but he said he isn’t getting any help from the Jones County Sheriff’s Department with the matter. He said he has been working with the Attorney General’s Office on the case, but Berlin was “essentially giving the middle finger to the AG” by not communicating with that agency’s officials.
Berlin took exception to that, saying that no one with the AG’s office had contacted him about the case.
“Saying I’m giving them the middle finger, that’s just a lie,” Berlin said.
Pitts said he was only relaying what was told to him by the investigator he’s been communicating with at the state agency.
“I have no rancor or malice ... I just want justice,” Pitts said. “My farm is my only form of living. I don’t want to sue my home county. Please, let’s resolve this. I just want my property back.”
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