Pickett
Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble suspended Pickett after allegations of misconduct “during Pickett’s prior military service,” according to a Gobble news release dated Aug. 20, 2009.
Pickett was the target of a multiagency investigation, according to Gobble.
“Federal investigators from the Memphis office of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), Chattanooga office of the FBI and the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office also discovered Pickett violated several departmental policies regarding evidence procedures,” said Gobble.
According to wire reports, the investigation alleged that Pickett had smuggled two automatic assault weapons and grenades from Iraq. The alleged smuggling incident reportedly occurred in 2005.
Pickett was eventually charged federally with one count of smuggling.
Reports also indicated Pickett, who worked for BCSO from late 2007 until he was fired Aug. 19, 2009, was alleged to have sold one of the fully-automatic AK-47s, and kept the other in his assigned patrol car.
Gobble said today that there was evidence of steroid use by the former deputy, mishandling of evidence which “had been seized in a case and not properly logged.”
Contained in a summary of the disposition from BCSO, Pickett reportedly “held illegal narcotics that he seized as evidence in his patrol vehicle for almost four months. The evidence was never turned in to Lynn Perillo, evidence custodian” at the sheriff’s office.
The document also indicated he falsified information on his employment application regarding firearms theft.
The fourth and final point in the document noted seized driver’s licenses were found at Pickett’s home. The licenses were discovered to have been suspended or fakes, but Pickett “failed to turn the licenses in to the proper custodian.”
Pickett also faces up to a $250,000 fine, according to reports.
