DeKalb County police Sgt. Jerry Banks was boisterous and disobedient last week when police detectives told him to leave the home of a woman they called his girlfriend, according to police reports.
DeKalb detectives were at the home of Cherise McMoore after she waved a gun and threatened to beat up a neighbor when Banks arrived with McMoore and tried to prevent their investigation, police said.
“[Banks] did knowingly and willfully obstruct or hinder … a law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of the officer’s official duties,” said a warrant for the police sergeant's arrest, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Banks, a nearly 14-year veteran with DeKalb police, and McMoore were arrested Friday morning at her home near Lithonia. He was charged with misdemeanor obstruction, and she was charged with making terroristic threats to a woman living near her, a felony.
According to McMoore’s arrest warrant, last Tuesday she brandished a chrome handgun in the air at a neighbor and threatened to “whoop her [butt]."
Friday, Banks “refused to comply with verbal commands to leave the property while a search warrant was being executed on his girlfriend’s residence,” the arrest warrant said.
He was released early Friday evening on $500 bond. McMoore was released Monday on $3,500 bond.
Banks previously was in the news after his wife was attacked outside their home in the early hours of May 13, police said. Investigators are still seeking the assailant and have said they do not consider Banks, who was inside the home at the time, a suspect.
According to jail and court records, Banks was arrested in 1997 on simple and family battery allegations, but the charges were dismissed.
McMoore, 33, has had several previous arrests for trespassing and theft by taking, according to court documents. Those cases appear to be unresolved.
Banks has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the resolution of his criminal case, DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said.
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