Crime

Former Bibb County internal affairs deputy arrested, charged with theft

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as needed.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as needed.

A veteran Bibb County sheriff’s deputy who resigned earlier this month was arrested the next day on theft-by-deception and violation-of-oath charges in connection with an allegation that she duped her employers at a part-time job at Goodwill into paying her for hours she didn’t work.

According to a police report, the case against the now-former deputy, Jennifer Willean Emory, 47, centers on hours she was reportedly absent while employed in an unspecified job at Goodwill Industries’ Helms Career Center at 240 Broadway in downtown Macon.

Emory, who had been a sheriff’s deputy since 2002 — most recently in the Office of Professional Standards and Internal Affairs — was suspended from her job at the sheriff’s office after the allegation came to light in May, sheriff’s officials said.

The officials said Emory later resigned the day before her July 20 arrest. She has since been released from jail on bond.

According to narrative in a May 7 police report, a loss-prevention officer at the career center told a sheriff’s deputy that he had reviewed about five months of video-surveillance footage that supposedly showed Emory “coming in (to work) and leaving for extended amounts of time throughout the time she was supposed to be” at the center.

The report said Emory appeared to have been paid for about 150 hours that she was not there, which amounted to about $3,700.

This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 2:20 PM.

Joe Kovac Jr.
The Telegraph
Joe Kovac Jr. writes about local news and features for The Telegraph, with an eye for human-interest stories. Joe is a Warner Robins native and graduate of Warner Robins High. He joined the Telegraph in 1991 after graduating from the University of Georgia. As a Pulliam Fellowship recipient in 1991, Joe worked for the Indianapolis News. His stories have appeared in the Washington Post, the Seattle Times and Atlanta Magazine. He has been a Livingston Award finalist and won numerous Georgia Press Association and Georgia Associated Press awards.
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