BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) -- The Benton County sheriff announced Wednesday (Nov. 18) he will immediately reinstate two deputies to their prior positions following Tuesday night's grievance hearing that ended with the grievance committee ruling the deputies had been wrongfully demoted.
After nearly five hours, the grievance committee voted deputies Robin Holt and Jeremy Guyll qualified as whistle blowers and shouldn't have been demoted by Sheriff Kelley Cradduck.
The attorney for Holt and Guyll said his clients were demoted after they refused the sheriff's orders to falsify employee records for the sheriff's friend.
The attorney who spoke on behalf of Cradduck, who wasn’t at the grievance hearing, said the deputies were demoted after they made a video that poked fun of rape suspects and victims.
Cradduck is currently under investigation by Arkansas State Police after employees said he asked them to backdate the start date for a new hire by two weeks so that he would be paid for two weeks of work he didn't do.