Bainbridge City Manager Chris Hobby confirmed that the conversation that led to the arrest and termination of former Decatur County Sheriff’s Officer Robert Humphrey late last week occurred between Humphrey and Bainbridge Public Safety Investigator Christopher Jordan.

“What my understanding is, that this began with a tip from an informant…that involved one of our investigators, Chris Jordan, and a family member,” Hobby said. “Deputy Director [Frank] Green passed that information on to Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which would be standard course in this type of situation, and the GBI began an investigation. Before that investigation was able to really begin, its alleged that Robert Humphrey passed information to [Jordan] that their family member was being investigated. That’s really the crux of the case here.”

After allegedly receiving the tip from Humphrey, Jordan worked to verify the information by asking around at BPS, according to Hobby.

“That kind of started a whole other round of conversations about where did Jordan get that information,” Hobby said. “That all led to the GBI beginning an investigation into that. Where did that information come from and they now believe it came from Robert Humphrey.”

Humphrey turned himself into the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Thursday, June 2 after a warrant was taken out for his arrest.

He was charged with a felony count of violation of oath by public officer and a misdemeanor charge of obstruction and terminated from his position at DCSO by Sheriff Wiley Griffin.

According to a GBI press release, Humphrey was charged at the conclusion of a month long investigation. He is accused of obstructing a GBI investigation, which was later confirmed by Hobby to have included a member of Jordan’s family.

According to the release, on May 3, 2016, the South Georgia Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office requested that the Thomasville GBI office investigate Humphrey for obstructing a case being investigated by a separate GBI office.

“This case has nothing to do with the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office,” Griffin said after Humphrey was arrested. “This is a conversation between Mr. Humphrey and a Bainbridge Public Safety officer about a GBI case.”

According to Hobby, at this time the arrest of Humphrey is the only one expected in this case.

“At this point none of our people have been accused of any wrongdoing,” Hobby said. “They haven’t been charged with any criminal activity. Really, we don’t expect that they will be. This appears to be an investigation where the original focus of the investigation got shifted earlier on and it became more of an investigation about obstruction and interference, than it was about any wrongdoing on a family member of one of our employees.”

Jordan is still employed by BPS and according to Hobby that is not expected to change.

“We’re still waiting to see the case file from GBI to determine either to verify that there’s been no even appearance of impropriety on our employee’s part and once we verify that we will make a final decision,” Hobby said.

“At this point we don’t anticipate there being any action. He’s still employed and right now we don’t know of any reason that would change.”