Jailcigs Ecigs In Court
A story that has been running for over a year moves towards its denouement.
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by Dave Cross
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Jailcigs obtained a contract with the county’s prisons to provide a healthier alternative to prisoners while smoking was allowed – and then a substitute for the then banned cigarettes. Profits from the sales were meant to go into a central fund for the prisons to use. A tendering process was meant to be carried out prior to the contract and a reasonable cost charged to the prisons.
Financial officers had difficulty locating the money generated from electronic cigarette sales and then journalists discovered paperwork linking the sheriff directly to the Jailcigs company. It transpired that not only did his aunt and uncle run it but he also held a large shareholding.
As we pointed out earlier in our coverage, it’s not the first time that Arnold has been dragged into the public eye. Previously, the sheriff defended police brutality carried out by his officers. In incidents that went viral on Youtube: the first involved a roadside stop, the second depicts an inmate tied to a chair being attacked with CS spray. He was also strongly criticised for standing by and watching a man burn alive because, his excuse, he was wearing the wrong kind of clothes to rescue him. He went on to donate these uniforms to the fire department.
Finally, thanks to information given by Virgil Gammon, the veteran Sheriff's Department deputy, charges have finally been leveled at Arnold, along with his Chief Deputy Joe Russell II and his uncle John Vanderveer. Together, the three of them face a 14-count indictment compromising of honest services fraud, wire fraud, bribery concerning federal programs, extortion under colour of official right, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.
According to the court papers: “Arnold and Russell allegedly used their official positions to make JailCigs profitable, including by allowing the company’s e-cigarettes to be admitted into the Rutherford County Jail as non-contraband; directing jail employees to perform tasks beneficial to JailCigs on county time; promoting JailCigs to other sheriff offices and counties; and waiving Rutherford County’s customary commission from the sale of JailCigs. Arnold and Russell also failed to subject the business arrangement with JailCigs to a competitive bidding process and did not enter into a written contract with the company, despite being advised to do both things by the county attorney, according to the indictment. Between December 2013 and April 2015, Arnold allegedly received $66,790 from JailCigs and Russell and Vanderveer each received roughly $50,000. “
Rutherford County reached a $340,000 settlement last month with Virgil Gammon. The money is set to compensate him for being forced out of his job after he “revealed Arnold's involvement with making money off the sale of electronic cigarettes to inmates”. Meanwhile other counties are pulling out of contracts with Jailcigs.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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