The Knox County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday announced the firing of the third employee this week for misconduct and released investigative files on all three.

Former Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones calls the firings a "political hack job."

“I am deeply disappointed in the actions of the three former employees,” Sheriff Tom Spangler said in a statement Thursday. “Public trust is paramount, I will do what is necessary to protect it, and make sure the Knox County Sheriff's Office represents this community with honor and integrity.”

KCSO spokeswoman Kimberly Glenn said both the Sheriff’s Office and the state Comptroller’s Office have concluded investigations into use of county property and inmate labor. A Comptroller’s report will be forthcoming. Glenn referred questions about possible criminal charges to the office of District Attorney General Charme Allen, which declined comment.

The KCSO files — which you can read here and here — show that the internal investigation started last fall after Ronnie Kidd, the former director of fleet services for the sheriff’s department, pleaded guilty to participating in an insurance and theft scheme. 

Kidd had enlisted an inmate, Joshua Haynes, upon his release to steal a Bentley automobile belonging to local restaurant owner Christopher Captain, so Captain could file an insurance claim. The scheme unraveled when Haynes was caught with the car and told investigators what he knew. Captain subsequently pleaded guilty to filing a false police report. 

Scrap for Sale

Prompted by the revelations from Haynes, Spangler launched an internal investigation of the department’s Inmate Industries, a work release program that allows prisoners at the county jail to reduce their sentences through various kinds of labor. The Comptroller’s Office also got involved, as it often does in cases of misconduct by public officials.

Haynes’ account of work he had done or observed while incarcerated led internal investigators to Harmon, Moore and Hurst. Harmon was supervisor of the inmate work program and Moore was his assistant. Hurst worked as a mechanic for the program. According to findings in the investigative file:

• Hurst took multiple loads of scrap metal from work to sell at a local scrap yard and did not remit receipts or cash to the county.
• Hurst accepted a used air-conditioning unit from a church as thanks for bringing an inmate crew to clear brush on church grounds, and then had inmates work to restore the unit for his personal use at a hunting cabin he owns.
• Harmon and Moore directed Officer Joseph Cooper, who reported to them, to also haul scrap metal and excess wood pallets for sale, and did not record the transactions or remit money to the county. The report indicates this could have run to thousands of dollars over several years.
• Harmon and Moore, who directed inmate work crews, took inmates to work on private property and on a few occasions took them to their own residences.

The report, compiled by sheriff’s investigators Sgt. Toby Champion and Sgt. Matthew Schlosshan, found “sustained violations” of department policies by all three civilian employees, and found the scrap metal sales violated state laws.

Not all of the allegations could be proved. Harmon and Moore both denied they had had inmates work on personal property of theirs, including horse trailers. They also denied pocketing the money from the scrap and pallet sales, saying it was instead used to provide pizza for the inmate crews and other work-related expenditures.

Harmon also denied one of the more explosive allegations from Cooper, who told the investigators he had accompanied Harmon and an inmate to pick up a boat motor at Harmon’s home that belonged to Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones and bring it back to Inmate Industries. Harmon confirmed to investigators that he had helped Jones pick up a boat on his own personal time in Greene County in 2019, but said he had not used inmate labor for anything related to the boat.

Hurst, who told investigators he had only a sixth-grade education and had difficulty reading and writing, said he had been friends with Jones for years.

According to the county's 2020 salary database, Hurst was making $37,395 a year, Moore was making $47,486, and Harmon was making $57,314.

Moore declined to comment on the reports Thursday, and Harmon did not return a message. Hurst could not be reached.

Political Context

But Jones, who recently announced he will challenge Spangler in the Republican primary for sheriff next year, called the entire investigation politically motivated. Harmon, Moore and Hurst were all hired by Jones during his tenure as sheriff from 2008-2018. 

“This is a political hack job,” Jones said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. He said he “never, ever, never, ever” personally benefited from any work done by inmates, and added, “Whoever said that is a liar.”

Jones instead accused Spangler of scaling back the inmate work release program, which Jones said under his tenure had been providing 125,000 hours of free labor a year to local governments and nonprofit organizations.

He also defended Harmon and Moore as public servants, and said they were being singled out because of their connections to him. “Ivan Harmon has done nothing but work for this community his whole life,” Jones said.

Harmon, who is now 72, started his career as a supermarket manager. He served briefly on the old city school board, then for 12 years as City Council member and eight years as a county commissioner. He staged two unsuccessful runs for city mayor, most recently in 2011, after which he was hired by Jones to work at the sheriff’s department.

(In an unrelated investigation, one of Harmon's sons, Steven, pleaded guilty last month after a state Comptroller's investigation showed he had misappropriated more than $6,500 while working at the counter of the county's Sessions Court office.)

Moore was a sheriff’s deputy from 1986-2001 and served on County Commission from 2002-2008. He and Harmon were both caught up in the Black Wednesday scandal in 2007, in which commissioners were found by a jury to have violated the state’s Open Meetings Act while selecting replacements for elected officials forced out of office by term limits.

Moore, who was chairman of County Commission at the time, was removed from office after a judge found he had committed perjury in the course of the legal proceedings. Jones hired him in 2014.

Spangler did not respond to Jones’ claims of political motivation.

“Sheriff Spangler is evaluating the current inmate industries structure, and has been since the investigation began in October 2020,” Glenn said. “There is no question the value inmate labor brings to Knox County as well as various nonprofits in our community.”

In his statement, Spangler said that none of the businesses or the church mentioned in the investigators’ report are under suspicion.

“I want to be clear that there was absolutely NO WRONG DOING on their part; any abuse of county taxpayer funds or property was done by the former employees,” the written statement said.

One of those businesses is a tree removal company operated on the side by a longtime City of Knoxville employee, Pete Gerlach, whom Harmon said he became friends with while Harmon worked for the city’s stormwater department.

Harmon acknowledged to investigators that he sometimes used inmate crews to collect wood from trees Gerlach had taken down. He said he thought in many cases Gerlach had done the work for free to help out low-income residents.

David Brace, the city’s chief operating officer, said that Gerlach is an “outstanding employee” of the city’s Engineering Department and that city officials were aware of no allegations of impropriety involving him.