Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Cpl. Brian Kelly responded to an ad
placed by an undercover Barrow County investigator who was posing as a
prostitute
A man who once served as a spokesman for the Gwinnett County Police
Department resigned in lieu of termination Tuesday after being charged with
soliciting a prostitute in Barrow County.
The arrest is the second scandal
involving Cpl. Brian Kelly to emerge in the past two years.
Kelly, who was reassigned to uniform
patrol in 2010 after admitting he texted lewd photos of himself to a female
intelligence analyst, was arrested on a pandering charge May 31 by the Barrow
County Sheriff's Office.
Kelly never told the Barrow
deputies that he was a police officer, nor did he report the arrest to his
supervisor, said the Gwinnett department's current spokesman, Cpl. Jake Smith.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith
said Kelly responded to an ad placed by an undercover Barrow County
investigator who was posing as a prostitute. He then arrived at a Winder motel
where Smith alleges Kelly paid for a prostitution-related service.
Kelly served as the public face
and voice of the agency for about two years. But that ended in late 2010 when
he became involved in another indiscretion.
The department found evidence
that Kelly, who is married, had sent lewd photos of himself to intelligence
analyst Ja'net Sirles. The photos were taken at work, according to internal
affairs records.
Sirles also claimed that she had
sex with Kelly on his desk in his office while he was in uniform.
In a memo to Chief Charles
Walters obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via an open records
request, Kelly denied he ever had intercourse with Sirles. But he acknowledged
exchanging lewd emails and photos with Sirles "at her request."
"I have and do admit that I
willfully participated in conduct that was unbecoming my standing as a Gwinnett
County Police Officer," Kelly wrote in the memo.
Sirles resigned in lieu of
termination during the investigation.
Walters at the time said he chose
not to fire Kelly but to suspend him for 80 hours and remove him from the
public information officer position. Kelly, who was hired in 2003, had never
been accused of misconduct before the 2010 incident.
Walters said he knows Kelly
outside of work and that they were friends. Walters said he was disappointed by
the recent events.
"He was given an opportunity
and he made a mistake and he's paid tremendously for it," Walters said.