The Georgia Bureau of Investigation began an inquiry last week into the unauthorized release of protected employee information from the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, according to several officials familiar with the probe.

The “preliminary review,” as the GBI calls it, has been focused on the actions of at least one Sheriff’s Office employee who, along with Columbus attorney Mark Shelnutt, recently brought to the city’s attention a list of concerns about the administration of Sheriff John T. Darr.

Darr requested the inquiry in response to a letter Shelnutt wrote Mayor Teresa Tomlinson last month and a stack of related documents he turned over to the city. The materials Shelnutt obtained included medical information regarding at least one deputy and the personnel records of other department employees.

“It goes without saying that the Sheriff’s Office is extremely concerned by the apparent violation of both the city’s and the Sheriff’s policies concerning the maintenance, use and disclosure of such information, and potentially federal law,” Kirsten C. Stevenson, an attorney for the city, wrote in a response to Shelnutt’s letter.

Darr said he thinks the information was obtained illegally, and could lead to misdemeanor charges. The GBI has not concluded its report, but a Sheriff’s Office employee could be placed on administrative leave as early as this week, Darr said.

Special agent in charge Rodney J. Wall of the GBI’s Columbus office confirmed the agency’s involvement, but would not comment on the specifics.

According to interviews, the GBI is looking into whether Shelnutt’s client, Regina Millirons, a Sheriff’s Office employee, improperly accessed and released department records.

“It’s my responsibility not only to protect the citizens of Muscogee County, but definitely the rights of the employees of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office,” Darr said in a phone interview Friday from Panama City Beach, Fla., where he is vacationing with family. “Some of this, in my opinion, is politically motivated because I think there’s just some people, unfortunately, within the Sheriff’s Office that are not happy that I’m the sheriff.”

“In my opinion, we started holding people accountable for what they were supposed to be doing,” he added. “Well, that’s upset some people. You have less than a handful of people that are not happy, and they’re creating a lot of noise.”

Tomlinson said Shelnutt’s letter prompted an internal investigation.

“There’s clearly some patently incorrect information that was obviously given to Mr. Shelnutt,” the mayor said. “Our response certainly identified some concerns we had with the possibility that Mr. Shelnutt or his client had obtained information unlawfully. We are very concerned when anybody can obtain information that has been protected by law.”

Shelnutt knew of the GBI involvement but was surprised to learn it was at Darr’s behest and not a response by the mayor’s office to the concerns he raised in his letter. The veteran attorney said Darr’s reaction could cause a chilling effect on whistleblowers at a time when the Sheriff’s Office is being sued for gender discrimination.

“This information is astonishing because not just Regina, but numerous employees of that department have come and talked to not just me, but other attorneys, too, about their problems over there,” said Shelnutt, who recently settled a discrimination claim on behalf of former sheriff’s Lt. Pamela L. Brown for more than $26,000. “He knows that there’s a hurricane coming, and the best defense is an offense.”

Shelnutt said attorneys for the city asked him to provide documentation to substantiate his allegations during a meeting earlier this year.

“Everything that was given to them was given to them at their request,” Shelnutt said. “This was nothing but a good faith attempt to bring some problems to attention.”

City officials recalled the meeting differently. “If he perceived that he or his client had been asked to obtain confidential personnel records, he is sorely mistaken,” City Attorney Clifton Fay said.

Shelnutt’s letter

Shelnutt has a long and complicated history in Columbus politics, but he denied Darr’s suggestion that his laundry list of concerns was politically driven. In his letter to Tomlinson, Shelnutt said he harbored “absolutely no ill will or ulterior motives for bringing this to your attention.”

“It is because of my desire for our citizens to have a Sheriff’s office that is serving them capably, honorably, and every tax dollar is being spent for legitimate purpose to enable the office to carry out its duty,” the letter states.

Shelnutt’s letter outlined a wide range of complaints about Darr’s promotion tendencies, jail staffing and the accounting of some department funds. Shelnutt wrote of “severe abuses” in department spending from a commissary proceeds account derived from purchases made within the Muscogee County Jail.

Family members of inmates can deposit money into an inmate’s account so he or she may purchase items such as candy bars, chips and shampoo from a third-party vendor. A percentage of those sales goes into an account that Darr said historically has been used to pay for inmate programs or other items that benefit them, such as clothing, televisions or mattresses.

“It is clear that this money cannot be used for other things not authorized, such as the purchase of personal vehicles for members of the Sheriff’s department, which we have information had happened,” Shelnutt’s letter states. “Cars have been purchased and other things outside the scope of limitations on the fund.”

When Darr took office, he said, he began asking around and determined the proceeds also legally could be spent on items for the Sheriff’s Office, such as radios for deputies or administrative vehicles for employees.

“We have had this account audited to make sure we’re using good professional accounting principles -- and we are,” Darr said. “For every dollar that we spend out of the account, we’re not having to spend taxpayers’ money.”

Shelnutt also accuses Darr of promoting a disproportionate amount of men and overlooking equally qualified women. His letter claims Darr tapped mostly men for his first appointments to positions of leadership.

Darr, however, said he has made a concerted effort to promote qualified minorities in the department, a strategy he characterized as a departure from his predecessor. “When I took office that was my mindset: We have a lot of people that are minorities and Hispanics in our organization that I thought deserved that opportunity and had the qualifications and professionalism to hold those positions.”

Women holding positions of power “wasn’t the problem we had within the Sheriff’s Office,” Darr said, adding the department’s percentage of ranking women officers is in keeping with the national average. “What we’ve tried to do since I’ve come into office is open up a lot of opportunities for the females in our organization to work in a lot of different areas, when they weren’t given that opportunity before. I have a female in the training division and there hadn’t been one there in 15 years.”

The Sheriff’s Office has about 420 employees in all, said Maj. Randy Robertson. Of those, Darr said about 26 percent of deputies and correctional officers are women. He said women make up about 24 percent of officers who hold the rank of sergeant and above.

“That’s within line,” Darr said. “There’s not a big disparity.”

The city’s strongest concerns with Shelnutt’s letter appear to have come from the release of medical documents pertaining to a part-time deputy who has experienced health issues. Shelnutt’s letter refers to documentation that shows the deputy “was given medical release from the Sheriff’s Office when he was no longer able to perform the duties required due to health issues for which we believe he may be drawing disability.”

Shelnutt’s letter claims the deputy was hired by Darr as a bailiff but “has been working routinely in the jail and has essentially gone back to doing what he did prior to the medical situation resulting in his inability to continue as a deputy.” Shelnutt calls this a “serious problem” that has compromised the safety of inmates and fellow officers.

The only serious problem the city acknowledged was Shelnutt’s possession of the deputy’s records. Stevenson, in her response to Shelnutt, said the Sheriff’s Office has considered the deputy’s medical restrictions in its staffing assignments.

“The Sheriff’s Office has already taken steps to remind its employees of the applicable confidentiality policies, and is evaluating what, if any, additional steps must be taken in order to ensure that similar violations do not occur in the future,” she said, invoking the privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

In a postscript to his letter, Shelnutt said some Sheriff’s Office employees have voiced concerns about the sale of iron bars from the jail for personal gain. Darr said officials removed some bars and sold them as scrap metal to make more room in the gym.

“I turned around and bought some gym equipment for the Sheriff’s Office,” Darr said. “It’s no secret what I’m doing enhancing that gym.”

Metro editor Chuck Williams contributed to this report.