Grundy County Sheriff Heath Gunter can keep his certification under an agreement approved Thursday by a state police training commission.
Under the agreement, Gunter admits to two violations noted in an investigation in 2023. The sheriff must forego his state pay supplement for two years, make weekly contact with the commission’s state investigation for six months, take a state-approved leadership course and undergo record-keeping training. If he fails to meet those terms, he must surrender his police certification. The pay supplement amounts to about $800 per year.
Gunter appeared Thursday before the Tennessee Peace Officers Training Commission for a long-awaited hearing on his potential decertification as a police officer after an investigation into officer training problems at his department and the panel’s dissatisfaction with his efforts to resolve them.
“It’s a voluntary agreement,” Gunter’s lawyer, Gary S. Humble, said in a phone call. “They had charges to decertify him, and the commission agreed to drop the charges. In return, the sheriff agreed to do a number of things, and if he doesn’t do them, he’s agreed to voluntarily surrender his certification. So he’s confident this isn’t going to be an issue.
“He’s had no problems for 15 months,” Humble said. “It’s a win for the commission and the people of Grundy County, because the commission isn’t going to be dealing with the sheriff, and the sheriff can do what he needs to do to protect the citizens of Grundy. I’m glad for the sheriff.”
Grundy County / Grundy County Sheriff Heath GunterAdministrative Law Judge Stephanie Bergmeyer presided over the hearing before the commission Thursday and dismissed the case against Gunter after commissioners voted to accept the agreement instead of holding the formal hearing in a 5-3-1 vote, including one abstention. Chad Partin, former chair of the panel during Gunter’s past hearings, abstained, while commissioners Jonathan Beverly, Don Green, Ed Jackson, Jerried Jeffers, Dale Lane and Lowell Russell voted in favor of the agreement. Commissioners Jonathan Beverly, Lacy Wliber and Brian Wright opposed the agreement, and commissioners Garry Carter, Deborah Faulkner and Tom Spangler were absent.
Gunter did not immediately respond to a cell phone message or text Thursday seeking comment on the outcome of the hearing.
BACKGROUND
When newly elected Gunter walked into the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 1, 2022, the three deputies on duty had already worked a 12-hour shift, the sheriff said in a September phone interview. He teamed up with them to patrol the next shift amid a staff shortage Gunter has tried to address throughout his term in office.
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Since that day, Gunter has been the subject of an ongoing commission probe. A week after Gunter took office, the commission conducted an audit of the sheriff’s office and left a list of deficiencies behind for the new sheriff to address.
A second audit was conducted April 3, 2023, revealing several inconsistencies with preemployment paperwork and salary information at the department. That audit also showed an uncertified officer was working as a school resource officer in an elementary school. The findings led to Gunter’s case going before the commission July 21, 2023, when an investigative report was presented.
Gunter’s “actions show that he has failed to maintain good moral character by perpetuating a pattern of false statements on at least three separate occasions to the commission,” said a notice filed in 2024 by the commission’s legal counsel, Dennis W. Gregory, with the department of commerce and insurance. Humble on Thursday argued that none of the allegations had been proven or cross-examined as testimony, and that, if a hearing was held, Gunter would present a defense with testimony to demonstrate many of the problems stemmed from a lack of staffing and training, not untruthfulness.
The commission has the authority under state law to suspend or revoke the certification of any officer under its supervision.
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Thursday’s commission hearing allowed the sheriff to present evidence in his defense, and the commission’s investigative staff to present evidence to support disciplinary action. The commission, which has no authority to remove a sheriff from elected office, under state law can suspend or revoke the certification of any officer under its supervision. According to testimony and discussions on Thursday, an uncertified sheriff can still serve as head of the department.
In the hearing Thursday, the commissioner heard from the state’s investigator, Bruce Cantrelle, who testified about early findings in the state probe of the sheriff’s office regarding uncertified officers working in schools and on the road, and arguments from Gunter’s lawyer, the Signal Mountain-based Humble.
Gunter — who ran as an independent in 2022, defeating incumbent Republican Sheriff Clint Shrum — will be up for reelection in 2026.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.