After an internal investigation cited a Bryan County deputy as the mastermind behind a practice of seeking personal injury claims for on the job incidents, the sheriff is speaking out about the validity of the claim.
The Georgia Virtue reported Friday that four Troopers from the Georgia State Patrol were fired after command staff learned they were taking civil action against the insurance companies of drivers on whom they used immobilization techniques during chases.
In the report by the Georgia Department of Public Safety, a report completed by the Office of Professional Standards (OPS) referenced an interview with now-terminated Trooper Hunter Waters. The report stated that Waters told investigators that he learned about the practice from a Bryan County deputy.
The report reads:
He said he first learned of it in 2022 or 2023 from a Bryan County Deputy, who advised that he had engaged attorney Tina Maddox to assert claims against a violator’s vehicle insurer for compensation. This prompted TFC2 Waters to pull several crash reports of vehicle pursuits with his own use of intended termination techniques and provide them to Attorney Maddox, who then sent demand letters to insurers for respective violators, asserting claims of personal injuries sustained by TFC2 Waters.
Sheriff Mark Crowe contacted TheGeorgiaVirtue on Friday that the deputy, who is not mentioned by name in the report by the Georgia Department of Public Safety, was neither the creator nor the organizer of the PIT for profit scandal published by TGV earlier in the day.
Crowe said specifically that he spoke with one of his deputies who was previously employed in Effingham County and had a personal injury claim there based on a work-related crash.
“He told me that since he had been with Bryan County, he had a conversation some time back with Trooper Waters while they were at a restaurant having dinner. The deputy said that he told Trooper Waters that he had a personal injury claim in reference to an incident where he was struck by a vehicle and injured while on the job and told the Trooper the name of the attorney handling the case. He stated that at no time did he say his case was related to PIT maneuvers, nor has he had another case related to PIT maneuvers, nor has he had another case of personal injury, only the one from Effingham County. The Troopers devised that PIT plan on their own according to my deputy, and he said he had no part in that.”
TheGeorgiaVirtue filed an Open Records Request with the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office regarding any wreck that may have occurred involving the deputy during his time with ECSO, but the county office is closed on Friday. Check back to TheGeorgiaVirtue for updates on this story.
