Sheriff's Captain Lewis Rusgrove Resigns Over Racist Facebook Comments

BARROW COUNTY, Ga. -- A captain with the Barrow County Sheriff’s office has resigned after he came under fire for posting controversial comments on his Facebook page.

The Facebook postings began with talk of high gas prices and goes on to ask ”Damocrats, blacks or African-Americans where is the outrage towards your towel headed leader.

It went on to say you ”voted this camel jockey into office. And ends with ”I guess you're too busy helping baby killers, gays, and pot heads.

The page belongs to Lewis Rusgrove, who identified himself on the page as captain, CID, or Criminal Investigations Department at the Barrow County Sheriff's office.

"It was a big conce to me," Sheriff Jud Smith said.

Smith told Channel 2’s Kerry Kavanaugh he found out about the comment when someone slid a printed copy of the page under his door.

"The fact that he was referencing the sheriff's office and it was up there for everyone to see, I felt it was action I needed to take," he said.

The Sheriff suspended him 10 days without pay. But when the Facebook posting came to light, Smith said other employees came forward and said they had heard comments Rusgrove made and it made them feel uncomfortable.

The Sheriff opened an inteal investigation which ended Thursday with Rusgrove’s resignation.

”He should not have used his title and his position to spew out that kind of hatred," Barrow County resident Beard Sims said.

Channel 2 first leaed about the posting when Sims requested Rusgroves personnel file and sent the station a portion of it. We made our own open records request to confirm the information was accurate.

Sims and others said they believe in Rusgrove’s right to free speech, but not when representing law enforcement.

”To me you cannot serve the people if you got any kind of bias or you got hard feelings against him," Barrow County resident Johnny Smith said.

Rusgrove sent a rebuttal letter to the sheriff saying he did not make comments out of hatred, but in a political nature. He said the suspension was excessive because it violates his rights as an American and because he expressed his political views away from work.

Kavanaugh spotted Rusgrove at the Barrow County Sheriff’s office Thursday but was not able to speak with him.

Kavanaugh could not reach him by phone.