Monroe County deputy showed up to buy drugs in SWAT team shirt, sheriff says. Now he’s fired.
A Monroe County sheriff’s deputy accused of illegally buying pain pills in a drug deal last week was fired Monday.
The deputy, Paul Nicholas Stewart, 34, was jailed Friday in neighboring Butts County on charges that include drug possession with intent to distribute, Monroe Sheriff Brad Freeman said.
Stewart was released on bond over the weekend and had been asked by Monroe sheriff’s officials to meet with them Monday at 9 a.m., but Stewart didn’t show up, Freeman said.
“So he’s terminated,” the sheriff said.
Sheriff’s officials in Butts County on Friday alerted their Monroe counterparts that Stewart may be involved in the purchasing of Lortabs, prescription painkillers, Freeman told The Telegraph on Monday.
Freeman said investigators soon arranged “a drug transaction” in Butts County and that Stewart showed up to make a purchase wearing a Monroe sheriff’s deputy’s hat and a T-shirt that was part of Stewart’s SWAT-team uniform.
“It wasn’t like (Stewart) was buying hundreds of pills,” Freeman said.
But the sheriff said the alleged purchase involved enough drugs to merit a charge of possession with intent to distribute.
Stewart had worked as a Monroe deputy for about six years and most recently was assigned to the department’s support-services division, which includes staffing courtroom security and providing school-resource officers.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 1:22 PM.