Sgt. James Johnson resigned from his position effective May 7, records show.
“We had a dispatcher who was working with the individual, a juvenile was job shadowing at the dispatch center, and they were talking and the juvenile had made some comments about some text messages he had received,” said Sheriff Rob Streck. “Then we were also contacted by the juvenile’s family members.”
Johnson was the subject of an internal investigation conducted by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office prior to his resignation.
“We determined that we didn’t believe that the messages were within our code of ethics,” Streck said. “We just did not believe they were appropriate, especially for a law enforcement officer, especially for a supervisor.”
News Center 7 has requested a copy of the investigation and the sheriff’s office is working to prepare those records, a spokesperson said.
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The investigation’s findings were not presented to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, the sheriff’s office said. An earlier version of this story said the findings had been presented for review of possible charges, but the sheriff’s office has corrected information it had released earlier.
The text messages did not include any photographs and were only conversations, Streck said.
“The whole incident all together was inappropriate and nothing we’ll tolerate at the sheriff’s office,” the sheriff said. “I think it’s a lesson for everybody, especially with the way technology is today, you have to watch what you say.”
Johnson had been with the sheriff’s office for 19 years.