After the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s (GBI’s) arrest of a Jefferson police officer, the City of Jefferson discussed the GBI’s report at a meeting and former Police Chief Joe Wirthman responded.
City Attorney Rob Alexander discussed the matter to the city council at their March 24 meeting.
58-year-old Sergeant Reginald Lee New, Jr. was arrested in February for allegedly disclosing information from the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) system to a city official.
That city official was City Manager Priscilla Murphy and the information given to her was the fact that officer Justin Steven was driving with an expired tag. The tag was run through the GCIC database and the tag came back as registered to Stevens.
The officer on patrol then sent a screenshot of the GCIC tag query to his patrol sergeant and other members of his patrol shift. New was the sergeant on shift and reportedly knew that the expired tag in question had already been raised as an issue within the department.
Wirthman said that he and Murphy had a meeting the day before he reported the disclosure of information to the GBI.
In it, Murphy asked Wirthman if he would promote someone who was driving around with an expired tag and showed him a screenshot of the GCIC report.
That’s when Wirthman said he decided to report it because he witnessed what he believed to be a crime.
“I took an oath back in 1977, my first oath that if there was crime committed, I’d have to do something about it,” Wirthman said.
Wirthman reported it to the GBI, and New admitted to disclosing the GCIC information to Murphy.
“It never came to my attention,” Wirthman said. “It never got in my hands, because … it is such a simple fix. Or, if that sergeant was so upset about it, write the man a ticket.”
Wirthman also said that the original hit from Flock cameras came in September, and after Stevens was made aware after the GBI's investigation began he got his tag sorted out shortly after.
According to Alexander’s reading of the GBI’s report at the March 24 council meeting, New felt like the expired tag issue had not been adequately addressed by the chain of command, which led him to show Murphy the expired tag proof.
Murphy then took a photo of the evidence with her phone to address the issue to Wirthman.
“Following this discussion with the chief, [Murphy] determined…that the chief was more concerned that someone had reported information regarding the expired tag to her than he was about the actual fact that one of the officers was driving an expired tag,” Alexander said.
Around this time, it is reported that Murphy and Wirthman had been involved in disagreements regarding the newly vacant assistant police chief position.
According to Wirthman, Stevens had scored first in a promotion test for assistant police chief. Afterwards, the City of Jefferson promoted Lieutenant Steve Bannister to the assistant police chief position, which Wirthman said he found out through a press release.
“I texted the city manager … I said ‘when was I going to be told?’ she replied back, ‘you just were by a press release,’” Wirthman said.
The GBI’s report indicates that Wirthman suspected that Murphy had directed one of his officers to run the tag.
“To be clear, the chief’s speculation as relayed in the GBI report was 100-percent incorrect,” Alexander said. “Sergeant New inadvertently got caught up in an attempt to seek retribution against [Murphy]."
Alexander then gave his own analysis of the situation after reading from the GBI’s report. He claimed that the actual code that New violated “does not appear to include tag information within the definition.”
“The definition provides that descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, accusations, or other former charges and the disposition of those charges are protected GCIC information, but tag information does not appear to be within the statutory definition,” Alexander said.
Alexander said that the prosecutor has since agreed to drop New’s charges and New maintains his innocence.
“The criminal prosecution was at least overblown and potentially ill-advised,” Alexander said.
New has also requested reimbursement for his attorney fees, which the city agreed to.
Wirthman, who retired in February after finding out Bannister was made assistant police chief, said the incident had impacts on the police department.
“The city now has seven openings,” Wirthman said. “Stevens is gone, he left. There’s been several people who have left.”
"I love my job, I love working for the city, and I love working for the community," Wirthman said. "Again, it was over a tag. I can't emphasize that enough."
