JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 An overtime scandal at JSO has brought to light a love affair between a rank-and-file officer and top brass at the agency. <\/p>\n
JSO arrested 11-year-Officer Christian Madsen Wednesday.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Madsen is charged with three felonies for allegedly falsifying more than 200 hours of overtime and collecting more than $14,000 in unearned pay over a three-month span.<\/p>\n Sheriff TK Waters announced the arrest<\/a> in a news conference Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we have said many times before, no one is above the law,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n Sheriff Waters also confirmed that, during at least some of the time Madsen allegedly falsely clocked, he traveled to the home of Patrol Support Division Chief Jaime Eason.<\/p>\n Waters said the two were involved in a romantic relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very disappointed. I mean, she knows that. We talked. I\u2019m very disappointed, but at the same time, business goes on. We have to take care of business,\u201d said Waters.<\/p>\n Waters said Eason resigned her appointment as Chief but is still on the force, pending the outcome of an internal review.<\/p>\n Waters thanked the work of his officers who investigated the situation and vowed the agency will always address and make public the incidents at the agency that threaten public trust. <\/p>\n \u201cNow there\u2019s an administrative process in place. That I won\u2019t discuss great details,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n JSO\u2019s nepotism policy prohibits employees from being assigned to any position that would lead to potential conflicts or compromise the best interests of the agency.<\/p>\n Employees who become \u201crelated\u201d are required to immediately notify supervisors so conflicts can be mitigated.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen someone messes it up, then we have to address it. So, we\u2019ve done that. I\u2019m telling the public about it now because I think it\u2019s important for them to know and now we\u2019re going to move on and continue with the business of the Sheriff\u2019s Office,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n Madsen\u2019s arrest marks the second JSO officer arrested by the agency and accused of milking overtime this year.<\/p>\n Just last month, JSO arrested Officer Nicholas Hicks, who was a ten-year veteran of the force.<\/p>\n Hicks was accused of collecting $2,600-worth of overtime he didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n We asked Sheriff Waters what he makes of the back-to-back arrests and whether he believes it may be an endemic problem.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, actually this happens sometimes. Should never happen. There\u2019s a certain amount of trust we give a police officer that has the ability to take away someone\u2019s freedom, has the ability to take away someone\u2019s life in a life-threatening situation,\u201d said Waters. \u201cIt\u2019s up to them to deal honestly with the public and what they\u2019re supposed to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Action News Jax has learned Madsen earned more than $100,000 in overtime going back to 2020.<\/p>\n Waters said Madsen\u2019s past overtime and overtime at the agency overall will be reviewed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen these things come to light, we start reviewing things to make sure no one else is doing it. I don\u2019t think they are, but if they are, they\u2019re gonna be dealing with some consequences and circumstances,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n The consequences Madsen is currently facing include grand theft, organized fraud and official misconduct charges.<\/p>\n He may spend up to 15 years in prison and be required to pay $15,000 in fines if convicted on all counts.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 An overtime scandal at JSO has brought to light a love affair between a rank-and-file…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,643,7840,18747,81169,81168,969,116,118,117,971,970,81170,1872,634,81167,2631,2015,7842,12854,45559,66614,81166],"class_list":["post-170652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_jack","tag-ben_becker","tag-chief","tag-christian_madsen","tag-eason","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jamie_eason","tag-jso","tag-local","tag-madsen","tag-sheriff","tag-support","tag-tanika_hughes","tag-tk_waters","tag-tk_watters","tag-waters","tag-yena_gavvino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}