The former police officer accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery worked as a chief investigator in the District Attorney's office without proper certification or arrest powers, according to new reports.
Personnel records obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press show the elder McMichael worked for Brunswick Circuit DA Jackie Johnson's office from November 1995 through May 2019. He consistently got good performance reviews.
But in 2014, the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council notified the district attorney's office that in five years since 2005, Gregory McMichael had either failed to do enough training hours or failed to take mandatory firearms or use-of-deadly force classes, documents show.
The result was that he had technically lacked arrest powers since January 1 2006 — a situation that could have made Johnson and her office liable for any improper actions by McMichael during that time, according to a memo in the file.
Documents in the file show he was then stripped of his law enforcement certification and power to arrest people again in 2019, just months before his retirement.
That was for failure to complete mandatory training in 2018, records show, and meant he served out his final few months with the district attorney's office as a non-sworn liaison to law enforcement agencies in one of the counties in the judicial circuit.
A February 2019 memo reads: 'To that end, Mr. McMichael will not carry a firearm or badge, nor will he operate any vehicle in the motor pool outfitted with lights, siren or police radio equipment.' He 'will not engage in any activity that would be construed as being law enforcement in nature', it adds.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-worked-DAs-office-without-arrest-powers.html
