Former Assistant Fire Chief and current Lieutenant Rod Jolivette isn’t exactly out of work as a result of being indicted in Chattahoochee County for impersonating a police officer, but after being indicted suspended without pay, the effect probably feels the same. Pardon me if I’m not appropriately sympathetic. Jolivette will be arraigned on October 19, when he will enter a plea.
I get the feeling that, no matter how guilty he might be, the plea will be “not guilty.”
Now, in all fairness, the Albany Herald has reported that Jolivette’s attorney, Howard Stiller, has said they intend to enter a “not guilty” plea, but that’s about as surprising as the sun rising in the east. Jolivette has already shown that he’s not exactly the type to step up and accept wrongdoing.
Of course, Stiller says that once the jury here’s both sides, they’ll feel differently and cites the officer’s behavior of letting what he believed was a “fellow officer” go as grounds to cast doubt on the deputy who pulled Jolivette over. Yeah, whatever. I notice that there’s no defense. No claim of “he never claimed to be a deputy.” Not even a “he had been a sheriff’s deputy because of his previous job and didn’t realize that he wasn’t any longer.” Nope. Instead, it’s “the cop was wrong so we must be right.”
And people wonder why this country is so screwed up?
City Manager Al Lott claims that the move from paid to unpaid suspension was a matter of city policy. Frankly, I’m OK with that. Without a conviction, the city is opened up to lawsuits for wrongful termination. Yeah, Lott apparently told the Herald that, and he’s right in this case.
However, Jolivette’s case is another black mark against Lott, who opted not to terminate Jolivette after he used fire department personnel for the private cleanup of Jolivette’s aunt and uncle’s flooded house. Lott never disputed the claims of Albany Fire Chief James Carswell. In fact, in his letter to Jolivette, it’s clear that Lott agrees with Carswell. And yet, Jolivette still has a job. Now, we have this mess.
Hopefully this will be a quick trial so the people of Albany can put this behind us. Of course, if convicted, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jolivette appeal regardless of whether it was a slam dunk or not.
I thought he had a female lawyer….
Not according to the Herald. I believe he had a female lawyer for his appeal with the city though. I suspect that she was a specialist in employment law, and not really the kind you want for a criminal case.
I could be wrong though.
This seems like a pretty classic “mountain out of a molehill” scenario. Had Jolivette not been involved in this previous thing with the fire dept. it wouldn’t even be going on.
I didn’t know you could be “indicted without pay”.
Let’s make a mountain out of this hypothetical molehill…say I, as a regular citizen, get pulled over for speeding in another part of the state and lie my way out of the ticket by representing myself as a police officer, (assuming I know about the “professional courtesy” that law enforcement will show each other). After checking with the department I purported to represent, I get caught. How long before an indictment is handed down on me? Probably in the same amount of time. Jolivette would have been in trouble whether the fire dept. scandal had happened or not.
Jolivette was handed a gift when he was reinstated after the equipment usage scandal, albeit at a lower rank and pay. He could (and should) have been out of a job. He repays this kindness in short order by allegedly lying again! Our goverment officials and others (like the police and fire depts) working in the public’s trust SHOULD be held to a high standard of integrity and honesty.
The equipment scandal and the speeding ticket are not the issue. Alleged repeated lying by a public servant is the issue, and must be dealt with severely, justly, and swiftly.
FTCIV: You and I both know that the previous incident had nothing to do with him getting hit on this. His activities then are why this is news though. Especially, as Russ points out, that both involve his apparent inability to speak the truth when confronted with his own wrong doings.
And the mistake (that you knew was simply a mistake on my part) has been corrected.
The Chattahoochee Co. deputy did nothing unusual by calling to verify Jolivette’s claim.
IIRC, a lawyer from this area was arrested in 2006 or ’07, for falsely claiming to be a DCP officer or investigator while making a purchase of a knife at a Columbus gun store. He got caught when the off-duty deputy working at the sales counter called DCP to check out the ID.
If something smells fishy – cops will and should verify.
The traffic stop is often on tape, including the dialogue between the two presumably through the driver’s window. With that clarity, seems the local DA felt he/she had enough to ask for an indictment.
So will someone please tell me who is paying for the mayor’s valet/driver/bodyguard?
If the city is, I’m not so sure using a couple guys for an hour or two is so bad, ya know.
Why is this question and answer so off limits?
If it’s a city perk, then the mayor job should be advertised that way…it may attract a bunch of interest…better than a New York job.
speaking of traffic stops…I was cruising back from Chicago straight thru without incident and was wondering at about 4:00AM when I might be getting to Cusseta and was just reaching to put my cruise control on to make sure I didn’t go over …. cept I reached too late ….. and then the blue lights let me know I had already reached Cusseta ….you know the rest of the story.
The two deputies were lamenting that there wasn’t as much traffic toward Albany lately … seems their catch has been down.
(Actually, I don’t think I was stoppably over.)