Records: Russell conducted JailCigs business from work
MURFREESBORO – A Rutherford County Sheriff's Office chief deputy used his work email to conduct business involving a company that lists him as an owner, county records show.
According to emails obtained by The Daily News Journal, Joe Russell, the RCSO chief deputy of administration and finance, used Rutherford County Sheriff's Office work email multiple times with JailCigs owner John Vanderveer.
Records from the Georgia Secretary of State's Office show JailCigs is based in Marietta, Georgia. Two of the co-owners are John and Judy Vanderveer, Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold's uncle and aunt.
Georgia records show the company was formed in 2013 and Russell was a founding owner.
According to emails dating back to 2013, Russell had more than a dozen interactions with Vanderveer from his Rutherford County Sheriff's Office account.
Records show most of the emails dealt with day-to-day business concerns and Russell facilitated orders between the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center and JailCigs.
It also appears Russell was the point-man for JailCigs from his work account.
Records show in a Jan. 13, 2014, email, Lou Marasco, managing director of purchasing for Corrections Corp. of America in Nashville, emailed Russell regarding pitching JailCigs to CCA executives.
Corrections Corp. of America owns and manages private prisons and detention centers around the country and operates others on a concession basis.
"I presented your value proposition that allows inmates to use family friends to purchase JailCigs in jail," Marasco wrote in the email. "The overwhelming consensus was an emphatic 'no.'
"Good luck with your future business."
Records show that on Oct. 30, 2013, Russell reached out to an administrator in Alabama on behalf of JailCigs.
"Our vendor, Jailcigs.com, has asked me to contact a facility in Alabama concerning the county government regulations as it applies to the county jail and office of the Sheriff," Russell wrote in the email. "If you have a minute, I would like to ask some questions and offer the details of our program. It has been quite successful here and we enjoy a good relationship with the vendor which is why I am doing this favor for him. I can be reached at the cell number below at any time."
In an email from the Tennessee Sheriffs' Association in December 2014, Russell and JailCigs are invited to attend a February 2014 winter expo as a vendor.
Terry Ashe, executive director of the Tennessee Sheriffs' Association, said JailCigs was a vendor that year but could not recall if Arnold or Russell attended.
Lisa Marchesoni, spokeswoman for the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office, said Thursday that the Sheriff's Office did pay for Russell to attend the conference but only as a sheriff's employee and not as a vendor.
The emails also raises questions about whether Arnold knew about Russell's involvement in the company.
When DNJ news partner WSMV showed Arnold the paperwork, he said he didn't know about Russell's involvement.
"No, I'm kind of shocked about that," Arnold said. "I guess I'm taken back on that."
However, a March 25, 2014, email from JailCigs addressed to Arnold states that the company was developed by the chief financial officer of the third largest sheriff's office in the state.
Marchesoni said the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office in the third or fourth largest in the State of Tennessee.
However, that ranking could not be confirmed with state officials Thursday night.
Arnold declined to comment Thursday, citing a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigation.
Russell did not return multiple calls Thursday from The Daily News Journal.
Tablet contract
According to DNJ news partner WSMV, Arnold signed a contract last year to allow a private company, Telmate, to put tablet computers in the jail.
The inmates or their families pay a fee for access, and the Sheriff's Office gets 25 percent, according to the WSMV report.
Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess said the county supports looking into both the tablet arrangement.
"Whatever investigation that is necessary, we support," Burgess told WSMV. "Anytime of our employees do anything inappropriate, it brings on a lack of trust from our citizens.
"The only way we can recover is do what we say what we're supposed to do. When we don't, we've violated the trust of our citizens."
Contact Aldo Amato at 615-278-5109 or agamato@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Aldo_Amato.