Lithonia may be without a police chief after an administrative law judge Friday upheld the state’s decision to revoke the certification of acting Chief Washington Varnum because of his performance while he was with the DeKalb County Marshal’s Office.
Without certification, Varnum has no arrest powers, which would make it difficult for him to serve as chief. Varnum declined to comment on the substance of Judge Kimberly Schroer’s order Friday because he had not received it, but he said he planned to appeal. City officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
Varnum was under state investigation two years ago when he joined the tiny Lithonia Police Department as a reserve officer, earning $11 an hour. That part-time position afforded him a badge and gun and made him eligible for private security jobs paying $25 to $30 an hour.
Varnum was named acting police chief in January, just as the Peace Officers Standards and Training Council was completing its investigation of issues from his 13 years as a deputy marshal.
Schroer’s order documents what led Varnum to resign in lieu of termination from the DeKalb Marshal’s Office in the spring of 2010. He was accused of incompetence, not doing his job, lying, and falsifying a court document. Shortly before he was forced to resign from the marshal’s office, Varnum returned an eviction notice for himself, claiming he could not be found in the jurisdiction.
Each day, every DeKalb deputy marshal is expected to serve 30 court papers — warrants, eviction notices and garnishment orders, according to the county marshal. Records show that Varnum averaged 10 a day. Records also showed Varnum often worked only two to three hours a day but claimed overtime. He drove his county car after hours, which was prohibited, and sometimes at speeds up to 108 mph, according to records.
Varnum was counseled and suspended several times — once for 25 days.
In April 2010, Varnum was given six warrants to serve on renters who were about to be evicted from an apartment complex on Henderson Mill Road.
One of them was for Varnum himself.
Varnum said nothing and returned the warrant to the DeKalb County State Court at the end of his shift. On the document he checked the box beside “defendant not found in the jurisdiction of this court” and noted that the warrant could not be served because the buildings were not “properly marked, ” a marshal’s office guideline to ensure court documents are delivered to the correct address.
Varnum told Schroer during a hearing on his appeal of the POST decision that he was strictly following the department’s policy that notices would not be served if breezeways at apartment buildings were not clearly marked.
“Of course, notwithstanding the statements he made on the Varnum warrant, [he] knew where he was in the jurisdiction and which apartment unit was his,” Schroer wrote.
The judge said Varnum was “motivated by self-interest” and his notations on the warrant he returned to the court were “indicative of untrustworthiness. Perhaps more troubling, however, is [Varnum’s] repeated insistence that he believes he did nothing wrong … and that he would do the same thing again.”
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