AR - Complaint: ASP Investigating BenCo Sheriff

I am curious about what others think of this situation and video....



Robin Holt claims she was demoted because she reported the Sherriff's illegal requests:

Robin Holt says she was demoted from lieutenant to deputy on October 26. In the grievance, Holt says the demotion came after she agreed to cooperate with an ASP investigation.

Holt says that on October 5, Sheriff Cradduck told her to immediately hire a man living with him, despite the man not having completed required physical and psychological testing. Holt claims the sheriff also told her to backdate the man's hire date, resulting in additional pay.

According to the complaint, Holt reported the situation to her supervisor, who agreed it was against the rules. They then contacted ASP, which launched an investigation into the matter.

Click to expand...

The Sherriff claims she was demoted due to the video at the link below:

She was demoted because of the video. I cannot tolerate any of my employees making fun of rape victims. The grievance is her way of diminishing the contents of the video.

Click to expand...

http://www.nwahomepage.com/news/complaint-asp-investigating-benco-sheriff



Here are some other links:

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2015/oct/30/benton-county-jail-employee-files-griev/?news-arkansas-nwa

http://5newsonline.com/2015/10/29/grievance-asp-investigating-benton-county-sheriffs-illegal-actions/

The video is over the line, imo, and she deserves to have to answer for it. I don't know if a demotion is the appropriate response though.

If the sheriff made those requests and demoted her after she reported him that makes him look guilty and not very bright. When was the video made or when did it surface?

JMO.

Well, I guess I am curious as to why this sheriff is not on leave pending this investigation or looking for another job? Maybe they are that much in need of LEO's in that part of the county? Anyhow he sounds like a crook to me. Wonder how the locals feel safe with this guy in charge.

NWA has a history of horrible police.
Look up the case of Joseph Erin Hamley; that trooper got to retire on full medical pension because he was too distraught over his negligent homicide to work anymore.
or the case of James Patrick Ahern where the cop was also convicted of negligent homicide but went on to become Chief of Police for another small town in Benton County.

bluesneakers said:

The video is over the line, imo, and she deserves to have to answer for it. I don't know if a demotion is the appropriate response though.

If the sheriff made those requests and demoted her after she reported him that makes him look guilty and not very bright. When was the video made or when did it surface?

JMO.

Click to expand...

Apologies but I don't get the content of the video. Not entirely sure what she is saying or singing but can see a whip motion and leg movement, but don't get that it is mocking a victim of any sort.

Can anyone direct me to what song to look up? Thanks.

Woodland said:

Apologies but I don't get the content of the video. Not entirely sure what she is saying or singing but can see a whip motion and leg movement, but don't get that it is mocking a victim of any sort.

Can anyone direct me to what song to look up? Thanks.

Click to expand...

"Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)" by Silentó and "Superman Crank That" by Soulja Boy.

I don't think she's mocking rape victims exactly, but she's making light of prison rape and joking about breaking a rapist's legs. I don't know if saying "Superman that ho" is mocking rape victims. Is she implying rape victims are *advertiser censored*, or does she just think she's being funny? It's in bad taste and unprofessional, for sure, and not something an officer in uniform should be doing. IMO.

bluesneakers said:

I don't think she's mocking rape victims exactly, but she's making light of prison rape and joking about breaking a rapist's legs. I don't know if saying "Superman that ho" is mocking rape victims. Is she implying rape victims are *advertiser censored*, or does she just think she's being funny? It's in bad taste and unprofessional, for sure, and not something an officer in uniform should be doing. IMO.

Click to expand...

I think that was why she was fired because it wasn't professional.
IMO pretty much that entire county needs to be fired. LOL

vestigare said:

I think that was why she was fired because it wasn't professional.
IMO pretty much that entire county needs to be fired. LOL

Click to expand...

Do you think she should be fired for it? If I were her boss I would send her packing for sure, but I don't know how much cops are allowed to get away with. I'm kind of surprised she was busted at all, although it might just be a way to get even with her after the complaint.

You might be right. When I was searching for the video I googled "benton county police rape" and got this:

Benton police officer charged with rape

This is a nasty story imo. If I have the short version right -

Holt made this video (insert unknown time frame)

It does not look like it was circulated anywhere other than within this detachment (does not show up anywhere other than the news site - for now anyway)

Cradduck asks Holt to do something unprofessional and illegal (ripoff taxpayers for a friend) - she refuses and takes it up the chain of command who agree with her and the chain of command hands it over to the state police for further investigation

Cradduck retaliates towards her by reducing her rank and compensation then releases this video to the news site (or so it appears)

Cradduck also threatens every other officer in the detachment with having to take a polygraph until he finds out who took his attempted ripoff scheme up the chain of command

Was Cradduck too chicken to retaliate up the chain of command?

Did he know about this video before the retaliation?

Imo -Cradduck should not be trusted in the future with his current level of power and Holt should change her clothes if she wants to make any more videos.

bluesneakers said:

Do you think she should be fired for it? If I were her boss I would send her packing for sure, but I don't know how much cops are allowed to get away with. I'm kind of surprised she was busted at all, although it might just be a way to get even with her after the complaint.

You might be right. When I was searching for the video I googled "benton county police rape" and got this:

Benton police officer charged with rape

Click to expand...

I think it was probably a retaliatory firing and they used the video as excuse.

I think the video and is somewhat clever and is not mocking or making fun of rape victims. I had do some research before arriving at my opinion.

First of all, The Rape Elimination Act of 2003 is specifically about rape in prisons, jails, etc. It addresses a problem that is mostly experienced by men.

Secondly, I found that all the terms such as "whip", "nae nae", "break your legs", and "superman" are the names of very specific dance moves. They have no other meaning.

In essence, the officer made a meaningless video. Next time, just don't post it online, IMO.

On the other hand, it seems to me that if what was claimed about the sheriff proves to be true, I think Benton County needs to completely remove him from office. There was a case regarding something to do with the sheriff getting kick-backs from prisoner debit cards. I don't know how or if it was resolved. Other little tidbits I have read about him lead me to believe he is a bully and a mysoginist.

I have no respect for people like him.

i.b.nora said:

I think the video and is somewhat clever and is not mocking or making fun of rape victims. I had do some research before arriving at my opinion.

First of all, The Rape Elimination Act of 2003 is specifically about rape in prisons, jails, etc. It addresses a problem that is mostly experienced by men.

Secondly, I found that all the terms such as "whip", "nae nae", "break your legs", and "superman" are the names of very specific dance moves. They have no other meaning.

In essence, the officer made a meaningless video. Next time, just don't post it online, IMO.

On the other hand, it seems to me that if what was claimed about the sheriff proves to be true, I think Benton County needs to completely remove him from office. There was a case regarding something to do with the sheriff getting kick-backs from prisoner debit cards. I don't know how or if it was resolved. Other little tidbits I have read about him lead me to believe he is a bully and a mysoginist.

I have no respect for people like him.

Click to expand...

Superman does not mean what you think it means.

bluesneakers said:

Superman does not mean what you think it means.

Click to expand...

Not a reference to the "real" comic book Superman? What does it mean? tia

teedie2 said:

Not a reference to the "real" comic book Superman? What does it mean? tia

Click to expand...

Adult content! I'll post the links because I have no idea how to describe it and stay within TOS.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Superman

And

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=superman+dat+hoe

bluesneakers said:

Adult content! I'll post the links because I have no idea how to describe it and stay within TOS.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Superman

And

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=superman+dat+hoe

Click to expand...

Ah, ok. Nevermind. I think I'm too old for that info.

teedie2 said:

Ah, ok. Nevermind. I think I'm too old for that info.

Click to expand...

I would be too except for the "Being a parent" part.

The whole "nae nae" song is based on dance moves and their names. The "Superman" is one of the moves.

The best most informative and interesting article I found on it was here:

Watch Me Dance: How To Whip, Nae Nae, Bop And Other Moves From This Summer's Viral Song
By Jackie Salo | Thu, 2015-07-16 12:25

Be sure to watch the "how to" videos.

http://www.ibtimes.com/pulse/watch-...ae-bop-other-moves-summers-viral-song-2011954

“9. The Superman - Step your right leg out with your body angled with it. Begin the breast-stroke move with your arms, but pull them behind you. Step out to the left and do this move again."

Looking now at the urban dictionery definition, strictly speaking, it doesn't to me that it is likely to apply to prison rape situations. But, I suppose it could. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. In any case, I really don't care about her ten second video. I think the demotion was done in retaliation for her reporting him to her Captain. And, The Captain, in turn, reporting it and causing an investigation. The Captain, by the way, gave to the Cradducks earlier this year when Cradduck's wife, accompanied by The Chief went to Minnesota in December of 2014 for treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

Someone sent the 10 second video to Cradduck's wife's telephone number (the number given out for employees to contact the Chief) on September 24th and a reply said something like, "that's funny".

On October 5th, the Chief asked Holt to hire Cox, etc.

On Oct. 13th, Cradduck was made aware of the ASP investigation and launched his own investigation to figure out which employees were cooperating with ASP.

On October 23rd, Cradduck ordered an investigation of Ms Holt to see if she had used her county issued vehicle on a vacation over the summer.

On October 26th, Cradduck demoted her.

It wasn't because of the 10 second video, imo.

And now I think I am done with the whole topic. I hope they find in her favor.

The video, to me, is distasteful but I have a hard time seeing it as "making fun of rape victims". It seems more like a "warning" to offenders that the sheriff's office doesn't put up with rape (even if it was a stupid and unprofessional way to do it)... either way, I do not believe the video is the real reason for her demotion.

It seems that the the Captain has also filed a grievance against Cradduck:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/oct/30/prosecutor-confirms-investigation-benton-county-sh/

Guyll is on medical leave, the filing states, and has received no notice of his demotion. However, the grievance says Cradduck sent an email to employees of the Sheriff's Office on Oct. 27 announcing that Jeff Robbins had been promoted to jail captain.

"Sheriff Cradduck has not notified Captain Guyll that he is being transferred, demoted, or terminated," the filing states. "Captain Guyll has been informed by way of rumor that he will be demoted by Sheriff Cradduck. Based on the October 27, 2015, email, it is clear that Captain Guyll will not resume his duties as Captain over the jail upon return from his medical leave. The removal of Captain Guyll as captain over the jail is an adverse employment action that Sheriff Cradduck has made in retaliation for Captain Guyll having reported illegal and unethical conduct by Sheriff Cradduck."

Click to expand...

From the same article linked above -

The grievance states that employees routinely communicated with Cradduck through his wife.

"Sabrina Cradduck's telephone number is the number that the employees of the Sheriff's Office are advised to use on a regular basis to communicate with the Sheriff," the grievance states. "Sabrina Cradduck is at the Sheriff's Office on a regular basis and is involved in the day-to-day operations of the Sheriff's Office. Captain Guyll received a text message response from Sabrina Cradduck's telephone number indicating that she found the video to be funny.

Imo, Cradduck is running his own little fiefdom with his own playbook and set of rules. To me, demotion for Cradduck would seem a little light in the way of consequences now.