A former Hall County sheriff’s deputy and a former jailer have been sentenced to prison for accepting bribes in separate drug-related cases, a federal prosecutor in Atlanta said Friday.
Former Hall Deputy Sheriff David M. Treadwell, 33, of Gainesville was sentenced to a year and a day, followed by two years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to accepting bribes to tip off a drug dealer.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that in late 2014 Treadwell accepted $200 or $300 on five occasions, and agreed to alert the drug dealer if it was learned that the dealer was the target of a Hall County investigation.
In a separate case, former jailer Austin Herring, 19, of Murrayville was sentenced to six months in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to accepting a total of $1,000 for taking packages he was told contained cocaine to a county inmate. The two incidents occurred in February of this year, and the inmate who was receiving the packages was cooperating with investigators.
Both Herring and Treadwell pleaded guilty in May.
“Herring and Treadwell placed self-interest above their sworn duty to serve and protect the citizens of Hall County,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn said in a statement released. “For just a few dollars they were willing to trade in their freedom and their careers in law enforcement.”
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