Sheriff Robert Arnold
A Davidson County chancellor hearing the ouster case against the Rutherford County Sheriff said Tuesday the indicted sheriff should be concentrating on clearing his name while in jail.
While acknowledging a citizens group must show “good cause” in trying to suspend him from office, Chancellor Bill Young said, “The court, quite honestly, is struggling with how a sheriff could do his job while he’s incarcerated and how a sheriff maintains the public trust of the citizens of this county as an elected law enforcement official while operating under the cloud of a federal indictment.”
Young said he expects to rule later this week or early next week on the citizens group’s request for Arnold to be suspended without pay until his ouster is decided. His salary is more than $127,000.
Arnold, Chief Administrative Deputy Joe Russell and Arnold’s uncle, John Vanderveer of Marietta, Ga., face a Feb. 7, 2017 trial on federal corruption charges stemming from an unauthorized scheme to profit from the sale of e-cigarettes to Rutherford County jail inmates. U.S. prosecutors said they made tens of thousands of dollars during an eight-month period and misled county and state officials about their involvement in the operation.
