Mike Friend
Allegations against the recently promoted Deputy Sean Knight of the Grady County Sheriff’s Department have arisen after he allegedly falsified his timesheets while working security detail for Winter Creek Golf Course in Blanchard.
According to a manager with the business, Knight clocked in one evening to the high paying security position and later that evening a fire alarm went off. However, Knight was nowhere to be found when the fire department showed up.
Knight was later terminated from his position by Security Manager Deputy Michael Laffoon, who is also Knight’s superior officer at the sheriff’s department and who got Knight the security job.
Deputy Laffoon, who first denied knowing anything occurred pertaining to Knight’s employment at his second job, but who later admitted Knight had been fired for the situation, said, “Who told you about this, I want to know… look I can’t say anything else about it, I was told by Art (Kell) that you need to talk to him if you have any further questions.”
Sheriff Art Kell said, “I have enough to worry about with this other deputy stealing from the department to start an investigation over another deputy who may have falsified timesheets… until they break the law, I’m not going to get involved. I’ve had enough bad media press to deal with to start this up.”
Kell said that Winter Creek should have filed charges on Knight if they were concerned about stealing of company time, and added, “what my guys do on their own time is their own business, not mine, unless they break a policy or law.”
When asked if falsifying timesheets and stealing are against the law, Kell said, “Law, I don’t know of any law that says you can’t falsify time sheets at a golf course, so no. And if you (Reporter Mike Friend) want to keep asking me questions on this issue you’ll just damage any good relationship I have with the paper. You can’t tell me you don’t ever speed while you’re driving down the road, or that you don’t break the law and sin… so why is this such a big deal if the deputy was not working on department time? If I start calling you and asking you questions about your crimes and sins we’ll see how much you like it.”
After Kell reverted further questions on the issue back to his Lieutenant, Laffoon could not be reached for comment.
Deputy Knight too could not be reached for comment. Knight also recently made headlines after shooting a Blanchard woman’s family dog last year and allegations of wrongdoing were turned over to the Sheriff’s Department as well as a lawsuit filed. Allegedly the commissioners are expected to approve a $15,000 settlement with the victim at next Monday’s commissioners meeting.
The general manger for Winter Creek could not be reached to determine if charges will be filed against Knight, however it has been confirmed that falsifying time sheets and collecting payment for time that has not been worked constitutes as “theft of company time” and is a crime.
