BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) — The Benton County sheriff will not be attending Tuesday’s (Nov. 17) grievance hearing after two employees filed grievances against him, according to a letter from Sheriff Kelley Cradduck’s attorney.
The correspondence, which is dated Nov. 16, is addressed to members of the Benton County Quorum Court who will be handling the hearing. It states Cradduck will not attend so the quorum court can “defend the discipline at issue with minimal distractions.”
The grievances were filed by Robin Holt and Jeremy Guyll. Both claim Cradduck demoted them because they cooperated with an Arkansas State Police investigation.
According to the letter, the sheriff feels his discipline of the two employees was justified following a video made by Holt and Guyll while they were on the clock at the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. The video shows Holt singing and doing a dance based on two popular songs, which the sheriff deemed inappropriate since he “made it a point to take sexual assault seriously throughout his tenure, and we are confident that those that have the County’s interests at heart will agree that the video reveals behavior … that warrants discipline.” Those were the findings of an independent internal investigation, the letter states.
Cradduck was notified of the video on Oct. 19 and launched the internal investigation shortly after, according to the letter. The sheriff then disciplined Holt and Guyll in accordance with the findings of the investigation before Cradduck knew who had contacted ASP investigators, the letter states.
According to Cradduck’s attorney, it will become apparent in the grievance hearing that the actual whistleblower in the case against the sheriff appears to be Benton County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Shawn Holloway, who is running for sheriff and has not been disciplined.
ASP investigators executed a search warrant at the sheriff’s office Nov. 5 and seized seven drawers of files after employees reported Cradduck had ordered them to backdate a new hire’s start date so that it would appear he started working two weeks before his actual first day on the job.
In his letter, Cradduck’s attorney writes that a mistake in the search warrant that has already been brought up to the appropriate parties still stands uncorrected, which may point to “an attempt to shift the focus of the grievance hearings from the conduct of the disciplined officers to an irrelevant political race.”
To read the full letter, click here.
Holloway’s campaign issued the following statement in response to the the letter sent to the quorum court members:
“It is irresponsible and reckless for Sheriff Cradduck to suggest the many investigators at the Arkansas State Police, the prosecuting attorney in Benton County, and the special prosecutor from Little Rock would somehow be part of, or fall victim to, a political plot to destroy him. I choose to think our good community is much smarter than that.
“I believe that law enforcement officers are held to a higher standard of ethical conduct than to cast political conspiracies to the press.
“Nothing in my campaign is designed to undermine the Sheriff, and I report to work each day ready to help our good community.”
