Thursday March 28th, 2024 3:26PM

Former Hall Co. Sheriff's Office employees plead guilty in two separate cases

GAINESVILLE - Two former Hall County Sheriff's Office employees have pleaded guilty in two separate cases involving corrupt actions.
 
The U.S. Attorney's Office reported Wednesday that 33-year-old David M. Treadwell of Gainesville pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe to tip off a person he believed was a drug dealer if the drug dealer was under investigation. In addition, 19-year-old Austin Herring of Murrayville pleaded guilty to attempting to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.
 
Acting United States Attorney John Horn said evidence shows that Treadwell, who was employed as a deputy sheriff, accepted several hundred dollars on five different occasions from a person Treadwell believed to be a drug dealer in exchange for a look out in 2014. The deal reportedly was for Treadwell to tell the drug dealer if he was under investigation.
 
Horn said evidence showed that in February 2015, Herring was paid $500 on two different occasions to take a package he was told contained drugs to an inmate in the jail. Herring was working as a jailer at the time, and the inmate was cooperating with investigators. Herring reportedly did not open or tamper with the packages, but was specifically told both times that the package contained cocaine from Mexico, though in actuality, neither package contained the drugs.

Both cases are being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the North Georgia Major Offenders Task Force which includes deputy sheriffs from the Hall County Sheriff's Office.
 
“Ethics and integrity is paramount for those working within law enforcement due to the many temptations that can arise and lead to an officer violating their oath of office as well as the law,” said J. Britt Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office. “These guilty pleas represent two cases where two promising law enforcement officers gave in to those temptations and now face serious consequences for their criminal actions.”

Assistant United States Attorney William L. McKinnon, Jr. is prosecuting both cases.
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