He's Doing it Again!

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Source - Shelby County Registrar's website

It seems a leopard cannot change his spots. Our local shurf, Mark (not a cop) Luttrell, is taking gratuities again. The Memphis Daily News reported that he took some free tickets that were offered by the University of Memphis and didn't return them. All the county commissioners returned the tickets they were given, but Mark didn't see the need to. That might be because Mark thinks the ethics rules of the county and the policies of the Sheriff's office that outlaw such conduct, are really just "suggestions", unless they are applied to deputies.

Mark took a free dinner cruise last year while in Chicago, and he didn't report it, nor did he pay for it himself. The cruise was paid for by Aramark, the company who just happens to be a vendor for the county and the Sheriff's office - to the tune of several million dollars.

While I was employed by the Sheriff's Office, it was made clear that you could not accept freebies from anyone. And, you couldn't take discounted stuff, UNLESS THE DISCOUNT WAS OFFERED TO EVERY OTHER DEPUTY SHERIFF. We routinely get discounts on food from different businesses, but that is an across the board discount to any cop. We get 10% from AutoZone, Dillards, and other companies, but once again, it's to all deputies and police officers. Now, I don't remember the U of M offering me free tickets, but if they had, I couldn't have accepted them, because we couldn't accept anything that was FREE.

Can anyone out there support his taking the free gifts? The rest of the county commission felt it was against the latest "ethics" policy, or else they would have kept the tickets too. It seems Mark has decided the rules just NEVER apply to him. Mark, that's a slippery slope. Pretty soon you'll be taking contributions from convicted drug dealers, oh wait, you've already done that. Oh well.

I'm still waiting on Mark's apology for taking money from the convicted cocaine dealers and other criminals, while punishing deputies for visiting a guy in prison. And I haven't heard anything more from Brian Kuhn, county attorney, regarding Mark's cruise. Now, I will be sending another email to Brian Kuhn on this clear ethics violation. Maybe Mark can be sanctioned by the county commission? Or do we have to find a coroner (whoever that might be) and have Mark arrested?

Mark, do the right thing - for once - and pay the money you would have had to pay for the tickets to a local charity. Give it to St Jude, The Union Mission, etc. AND don't accept anything else. You already make plenty of money, plus you drive our car, burn our gas and have our credit card.

If you are reading this and you find yourself asking what the ..... was he thinking, why not email him at mark.luttrell@shelby-sheriff.org and let him know - he is wrong!