Columbus County sheriff recorded making racist remarks against Black employees

WECT reports Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene was recorded making offensive remarks about Black employees.

The State Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice at the Columbus County Sheriff's Office.

In the recording, Greene is heard saying to acting sheriff Jason Soles, "If I have to fire every motherf***er out there, guess what. I'm tired of them f***ing with me. It ain't happening no more. No godd**n more."

WECT reports Greene wanted to know who in the sheriff's office had communicated with Lewis Hatcher, the former sheriff whom Greene had narrowly defeated in the election, and Melvin Campbell, a recently-fired sergeant.

Greene won his seat by 34 votes in an election that was so highly contested he'd been temporarily removed from office while officials settled the election disputes. Greene called Soles to report a "snitch."

"After being appointed as the interim sheriff I started to get a lot of phone calls from Jody late at night," Soles said. "And this one particular phone call that we received, he made the comment that he hated Democrats. And then he said, 'I take that back. I hate a Black f***ing Democrat.' And I had to start recording those conversations."

Soles said ever since making that recording, he's been working to bring it to the attention of county commissioners, court officials, the attorney general and the SBI over concerns that the county's most powerful law enforcement leader had a bias against Black people.

"I was told to just keep documenting everything that happens so that we would have a paper trail of it. And we did," he said.

Soles is now running against Greene for sheriff and doesn't want people to think his actions are politically motivated.

When a WECT reporter spoke to Greene about the recording on Monday, he said he had no recollection of that conversation.

After receiving a copy of the recording, Greene posted a statement on Facebook saying his office serves citizens of all races, and although he admits to using offensive language, he denies saying anything with racial or malintent.

Greene said he would cooperate fully with the SBI investigation.