Franklin deputy faces obscene materials charge - Anderson Independent Mail

CARNESVILLE, Ga. — A Franklin County sheriff's deputy has been arrested and charged with sending obscene materials to a minor.

Franklin County Sheriff Stevie Thomas said 51-year old Rodney Cordell was arrested late Wednesday and charged with one misdemeanor count of electronically furnishing obscene material to minors.

Thomas said he called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigations after hearing allegations that Cordell had been sending the inappropriate messages to a student at Franklin County High School.

"I received a call Wednesday afternoon," Thomas said. "At the time, I went and met with the individual who had called the message up on their phone. When I saw it, I immediately contacted the GBI and turned it over to them."

The arrest, Thomas said, came after agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Athens office interviewed Cordell at length late Wednesday.

According to Thomas, the student showed the message allegedly received from Cordell to another person on the high school campus and that person alerted the Sheriff's office.

Thomas would not say whether the student is a male or a female.

Cordell had worked as an officer at Franklin County Middle School and had been a Franklin County sheriff's deputy for eight years, according to the sheriff.

Before that, Thomas said, Cordell worked as a Lavonia police officer and a Hart County sheriff's deputy.

Cordell is free on bond. Thomas said Cordell was immediately fired.