Officer Tarik “T.J.” Crumpton was at the center of DeKalb County’s high-profile recent “contempt of cop” case.
In 2009, a major recommended that the department fire Crumpton for “reckless” behavior in multiple cases investigated by internal affairs and for being a liability to the department.
Crumpton was kept on. A year later, he was talking with a woman where he was working an off-duty security job and took exception to another man speaking to her.
Crumpton followed that man, Brian Peterson, outside and placed him in handcuffs, according to the internal investigation. He then slammed Peterson into an SUV, a patrol car and to the ground, head first.
The 2010 incident ended with Peterson in jail on charges that included felony interference with government property, for damage to the patrol car.
Crumpton remains on the force and under criminal investigation by District Attorney Robert James’ office.
Peterson lost his insurance broker job because of the felony charge, which has since been dropped and expunged. With relatives in law enforcement, he said recently that he believes “there are a lot of good cops out there.”
Still, he moved from DeKalb to Cobb out of fear of repercussions from challenging his arrest. His new job as an insurance sales manager takes him into DeKalb, which he is shocked keeps Crumpton on payroll.
“Right now he’s collecting DeKalb County taxpayers’ money,” Peterson said. “And there are other people out there like myself, who didn’t do anything wrong and now they have a criminal record.”
Other officers arrested:
Officer name - Date Arrested - Charges - Status - IA complaints/sustained
Ghayth Abdul-Mughnee - 1/12 - theft by taking, violating oath, marijuana possession - fired - 4/3
Dwayne N. Vaughn - 2/12 - DUI - active duty - 2/2
Quhanna Lloyd - 3/12 - DUI - active duty - 3/1
Jerry R. Banks - 5/12 -obstruction - fired - 4/2
Suzanne Kaulbach - 7/12 - theft/rec stolen prop, making false statements, obstruction - fired - 2/2
Akii Myers - 8/12 - theft by taking - resigned ILOT* - 3/1
Edwin G Perkins - 10/12 - harassing phone calls - fired - active duty - 7/3
Malachi M Taylor - 11/12 battery - family violence - fired - 1/0
Dennis Duren - 2/13 - conspire to extort, possession with intent & possession of a firearm in drug trafficking - fired -1/0
Dorian Williams - 2/13 - conspire to extort & possession with intent - resigned ILOT* - 2/2
Delvin McKibbens 3/13 probation violation resigned ILOT* 5/4
Matthew Davy - 3/13 - child cruelty/agg assault - resigned ILOT* - 0/0
Scott Biumi - 4/13 - agg assault resigned - ILOT* - 0/0
Eric Adkison - NA- under DA investigation - resigned ILOT* - 8/7
Quontwais Hudson - NA - under DA investigation - resigned ILOT* - 5/1
* In lieu of termination
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