MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – An investigator with the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office has been fired amid allegations of wrongdoing, according to authorities.
Those allegations date to Deon Thornton’s tenure as a detective with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, according to Sheriff-elect Paul Burch. He said the department looked into a complaint from a citizen and then referred the matter to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.
“The allegations were based on when he was employed here and had already left and gone to the District Attorney’s Office,” Burch told FOX10 News. “And once the complaint was made, we made contact with the Attorney General’s Office and turned the case over to them.”
Mobile County District Attorney Ashely Rich said the investigator, one of three in her office, had only worked for her for a few months. She said she first placed him on administrative leave and then terminated him about two weeks ago.
“It is not for any actions that came while he was at the District Attorney’s Office,” she said.
Rich deferred comment to the Attorney General’s Office and added that her office was not involved in the investigation.
“It wouldn’t be prudent for me to be involved in their investigation,” she said.
Mike Lewis, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, told FOX10 News that the agency generally does not comment about potential criminal investigations. Thornton also could not be reached for comment.
Burch said that before leaving for the District Attorney’s Office, Thornton worked as a detective for the Sheriff’s Office. And prior to that, the investigator was a Mobile police officer, he said. He declined to discuss the complaint in detail because it is now an AG case.
Thornton has not been charged with a crime, and Burch said that part of the case now is up to the state.
“There are aspects that allege criminal conduct,” he said. “That’s, ultimately, up to the Attorney General’s Office to determine whether it’s criminal or not.”
Burch said the Sheriff’s Office takes complaints against law enforcement officers seriously.
“We’re (a) very transparent agency, and when citizens allege misconduct or express concerns with the way something was handled, most of the time it can be handled on a supervisory level,” he said. “And then sometimes, it involves Internal Affairs.”
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