At Thursday (4/23/2015) night's meeting of the Rutherford County Ethics Committee, its five members voted unanimously to seek approval to hire an attorney to advise them on actions to take in the Sheriff Robert Arnold' JailCigs investigation. The committee will make that request at the May 14th session of the Rutherford County Commission.

The controversy involves Sheriff Robert Arnold's involvement in a company called JailCigs. It supposedly is owned by the sheriff's uncle, John Vanderveer. Its services reportedly were made available locally without any competitive bid process.

Also during the Thursday gathering, the committee members were in total agreement to seek help from District Attorney General Jennings Jones as to whether or not Sheriff Arnold or Chief Deputy of Finance and Administration Joe Russell broke any laws with this business that sells electronic cigarettes to inmates at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center.

The district attorney has already brought the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation along with the state comptroller of the treasury into the group who are investigating the allegations.

Sheriff Arnold was not in attendance at Thursday night's Ethics Committee meeting, however, his attorney Thomas H. Dundon of Nashville was there. Also absent was County Attorney Jim Cope. Committee Chairman Teb Batey noted that Cope had been asked to attend, but since he represents the sheriff as a county official, he is unable to get involved in complaints of this type.

JailCigs in Marietta, Georgia is a business that not only has the same name, but also sells electronic cigarettes to inmates. Allegedly, the sheriff's aunt and uncle, John and Judy Vanderveer, along with Rutherford County Sheriffs Deputy Chief of Finance and Administration Joe Russell are involved in the ownership of the Georgia company. Sheriff Arnold has also made statements on local media that his wife works for the company. That firm has a website: http://www.jailcigs.com/.

The Ethics Committee is acting in response to a complaint filed by local residents Jacob Bogle, Joe Liggett and Steve Lane. Lane is a part of a group known as Tennesseans Against Corruption. Reports indicate that non-profit group plans to file an ouster lawsuit to remove Arnold from office.