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Sheriff Moves To Fire Georgia Deputy Who Commented Online That Ahmaud Arbery ‘Still Got The Death Penalty’

A Georgia sheriff’s deputy in mid­dle Georgia has been “sus­pend­ed with­out pay pend­ing ter­mi­na­tion” after alleged­ly call­ing mur­der vic­tim Ahmaud Arbery a “crim­i­nal” on social media. In addi­tion to label­ing the slain jog­ger as a crim­i­nal, he is accused of smug­ly writ­ing, “he still got the death penalty.”

Houston County Deputy Paul Urhahn com­ment­ed on the Macon outlet’s Facebook post about the recent sen­tenc­ing of Arbery’s killers, Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan. The deputy replied, “That crim­i­nal Arbery still got the death penal­ty though.” On Friday, Jan. 7, the three men were hand­ed down life sen­tences for their roles in the 25-year-old’s death. The McMichaels both received life sen­tences with no pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, plus an addi­tion­al 20 years. Bryan, a McMichael’s neigh­bor, was sen­tenced to life in prison with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole in 30 years

Judge Timothy Walmsley stat­ed at sen­tenc­ing, “Ahmaud Arbery was then hunt­ed down and shot, and he was killed because indi­vid­u­als here in this court­room took the law into their own hands.”

Despite delet­ing the com­ment, screen­shots have been shared across social media, land­ing in the Houston County Sheriff’s Office. Over the week­end, the sheriff’s office launched an inves­ti­ga­tion, and on the morn­ing of Monday, Jan. 10, decid­ed to sus­pend Urhahn with­out pay and pend­ing termination.

Sheriff Cullen Talton wrote a let­ter detail­ing how the deputy vio­lat­ed sev­er­al of the department’s poli­cies, all relat­ing to code of conduct:

  • Page 5 (4A) – An offi­cer must at all times, on and off duty, con­duct him/​herself in a man­ner which does not bring dis­cred­it to the depart­ment or county.
  • Page 5 (4B) – Conduct unbe­com­ing of an offi­cer shall include that conduct
  • (2) – Which has a ten­den­cy to destroy pub­lic respect for employ­ees and con­fi­dence in the department.

The blow­back from the com­ment did not stop with the depart­ment. Activist Eli Porter, a mem­ber of the Poor And Minority Justice Association told WGXA, “That deputy rep­re­sents that entire depart­ment, and for him to say some­thing like that — I’m just … it got under my skin.”

Porter believed that the sheriff’s imme­di­ate response com­mu­ni­cat­ed a pow­er­ful mes­sage to the com­mu­ni­ty, show­ing every­one that “the sheriff’s office does not stand with what Paul said.”

Few peo­ple have expressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with the dis­graced officer.

Kimberly Ochelli wrote, “Exactly the type of per­son we do not need to be a Peace Officer not only in our beau­ti­ful city, but any­where. He deserved exact­ly what he earned.”

“He deserves to lose his job,” Laurie Hardeman post­ed in the com­ment sec­tion. “When a racist shows his true col­ors they need to learn just how igno­rant they act. And it reflects on how he or she was brought up and how igno­rant their fam­i­ly is also.”

But some believed that his free­dom of speech had been violated.

“The man has a right to his opin­ion, why should some peo­ple be denied their right to express them­selves because they work in cer­tain areas,” wrote Will Maddox.

Lawana Henrich asked, “I do not know what he said but what hap­pened to free­dom of speech?

Urhahn has an oppor­tu­ni­ty to appeal this deci­sion over the next 10 days. If he does not, his ter­mi­na­tion will be effec­tive on Jan. 20.