2014/12/04
MONTGOMERY COUNTY — The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department revealed this week that five deputies were under investigation for allegedly sending racist text messages while on duty.
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In a statement on Tuesday, Sheriff Phil Plummer said that two of the five deputies — Sheriff’s Capt. Thomas J. Flanders and Detective Michael J. Sollenberger — had been placed on indefinite paid administrative leave starting on Dec. 1.
According to WDTN, Flanders is in charge of the Montgomery County Jail, and Sollenberger works with the internal affairs unit and is a member of the SWAT team. The three other deputies had not been identified by name, and had not been suspended.
Sheriff Plummer said that the deputies sent racial messages on their personal phones between November 2011 and January 2013. Some messages were sent while the men were on duty, and some messages were directed at African-American deputies, he said.
“The N-word was used several times as well as other racial slurs and jokes,” Plummer noted. “Racism will not be tolerated in this office.”
WKEF reported that it had obtained “hundreds of pages of text messages.” One read: “What do apples and black people have in common? They both hang from trees.”
“I hate N*ggers. That is all,” another text message said.
“Very simply put, they’re N*ggers, son,” one deputy wrote.
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Dayton Unit NAACP President Derrick L. Foward received an anonymous tip about the messages in August, and reported it to the department.
Officials said that they conducted a three-month investigation, and conferred with the NAACP national office before going public with the allegations.
UPDATE: February 07, 2015
DAYTON, Ohio — An Ohio sheriff has fired two white deputies accused of exchanging racially charged text messages.
Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said he fired Detective Mike Sollenberger and Capt. Tom Flanders. They had been on administrative leave during an investigation into accusations of inappropriate text conversations on personal cellphones that included racial slurs and comments directed at two black deputies.
The sheriff’s investigation also cited texts with comments about hanging or beating up black people and Sollenberger allegedly referring to President Barack Obama as “a half-breed.” Obama’s mother was white.
Three other deputies received suspensions ranging from three to 30 days.
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