Gibson County Sheriff Paul Thomas faces 22 charges, according to the Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury.

A Tennessee sheriff is facing 22 charges in two counties after a state investigation found he allegedly participated in a scheme to profit from inmate labor.

Gibson County Sheriff Paul Thomas was indicted this week by separate grand juries in Gibson and Davidson Counties, according to the Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury.

Gibson County is about 145 miles from Nashville, in northwest Tennessee. It is home to about 50,000 people, according to the most recent census figures.

Thomas has served as sheriff of Gibson County since 2014.

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Thomas faces four charges in Davidson County because they relate to Tennessee Department of Correction inmates, according to John Dunn, spokesperson for the comptroller’s office. The Davidson County charges are one count of theft of property over $60,000, two counts of computer crimes over $60,000, and one count of forgery over $60,000.

  • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
    3·
    5 months ago

    Yup.

    Allegations detailed in the investigative report from the comptroller’s office include:

    In 2020, Thomas and a group of local investors created three for-profit businesses known collectively as the Alliance Group.

The three businesses provided staffing assistance to local businesses, housed current and former inmates at a transitional home called Orchard House and provided transportation to work release inmates and former inmates traveling to and from work.

Thomas directed a little more than $1.4 million in inmate wage fees and deductions to profit the Alliance Group from February 2020-October 2022, and at least 170 inmates in Thomas’ custody were employed by the Alliance staffing agency during the investigation.

Thomas, who held a 20% ownership interest in Alliance, received more than $181,000 in compensation, payroll benefits and legal representation services from the businesses, which the investigation claims came through inmate labor.

Thomas allowed 74 Tennessee Department of Correction inmates held in the Gibson County jail to reside at Orchard House without proper approval from a judge. The sheriff is accused of continuing to show the jail as the inmate location in the state’s offender management system, which resulted in the county collecting $507,273 in reimbursements from the state department of corrections that were disbursed to Orchard House without the state agency's knowledge or consent.

Thomas directed $448,637.09 of wages earned by inmates working for Alliance to be deposited into a private account owned and controlled by the Alliance Group instead of having their wages deposited into an inmate trust account.