Scott Broden

sbroden@dnj.com

MURFREESBORO — Jailed Sheriff Robert Arnold's cousin James Vanderveer lost his deputy job after getting into a recent wreck, Deputy Chief Keith Lowery confirmed Thursday night.

"He was responding to a call," said Lowery, noting that a Tennessee Highway Patrol report determined the cause of the crash was because of "careless, erratic driving."

"That's against our policy," Lowery said. "He was terminated (Wednesday)."

Lowery is overseeing the sheriff's office while Arnold is locked up and awaiting a jury trial scheduled Feb. 7 in the JailCigs case. Lowery is also one of the applicants seeking to be interim sheriff, and the Rutherford County Commission plans appoint someone to the position by Jan. 12.

Arnold, his uncle, John Vanderveer, and Joe Russell, a recently fired sheriff's administration chief, are facing a 14-count federal grand jury indictment accusing them of illegally profiting from inmates in Murfreesboro through the sale of electronic cigarettes from a JailCigs business. The three learned about their charges May 27 and pleaded not guilty. They await a three-week long estimated jury trial scheduled to start Feb. 7.

Unlike Russell and Vanderveer, Arnold lost his pretrial release arrangement Sept. 28. The court found probable cause the sheriff had committed domestic assault, witness tampering and intimidation of his wife pertaining to a Labor Day altercation at the couple's Murfreesboro home. Arnold remains in an isolated cell at the Grayson County Jail in Kentucky in a building that houses other federal inmates.

Arnold's cousin was brought up during the court hearing pertaining to the Labor Day Altercation.

James Vanderveer was one of two deputies that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation interviewed about what happened at Arnold's home, where the cousin lives, Lowery said.

Lowery said he fired James Vanderveer following a continuation of verbal and written reprimands for performance issues with the deputy.

The fired deputy was also involved in a questionable use of pepper spray of inmate Demario N. Harris on Dec. 9, 2013. Harris filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Nashville Nov. 26, 2014, seeking $150,000 in damages in regard to an incident that occurred Dec. 9, 2013, After Harris was transported to the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center, he was sprayed in the eyes with the chemical agent Freeze+P by jailer James Vanderveer while being restrained in a four-point restraint chair.

Federal court records did not reveal the settlement amount.

Prior to the December 2013 incident, Vanderveer faced a DUI arrest on Feb. 8, 2012, a day before he resigned from previous work with the sheriff's office. By November 2012, Arnold told The DNJ he rehired Vanderveer to work as a jailer after a department board recommended the personnel decision.

In addition to firing Arnold's cousin, Lowery recently suspended Maj. Terry McBurney without pay, which followed the major facing a grand jury indictment in November accusing McBurney of lying about being a U.S. citizen in 2010 in order to become a licensed officer in Tennessee with the sheriff's office. McBurney is from Ireland, records show.

Contact Scott Broden at 615-278-5158. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden.