Columbus County sheriff to resign after racist recordings

WECT reports suspended Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene will resign effective immediately.

The announcement from his attorney comes after Greene was suspended for making racist remarks about his Black employees and District Attorney Jon David filed a petition requesting Greene be removed from office.

In the petition, David cited racist remarks made by Greene during a recorded phone conversation in 2019, not long after Greene first took office.

WECT reports 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 acting sheriff Jason 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."

The petition also details a sexual relationship between Greene and a detective under his command, which at some points happened while both Greene and the detective were on duty.