Georgia trooper under investigation for misconduct expected to be fired

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — A Georgia state trooper under investigation for a host of misconduct allegations is expected to be fired.

Georgia Department of Public Safety leadership had recommended Blake Swicord’s termination, effective by the close of business Thursday; he has appealed.

The investigation into the sergeant in charge of the Milledgeville post began when an FBI raid on Feb. 28 recovered guns Swicord had bought that were now in the hands of an individual with a criminal background. Swicord was suspended from the Georgia State Patrol two days later.

The Telegraph of Macon obtained a 500-page file of the nine-month internal investigation, in which the department accused Swicord of associating with someone with a criminal background against policy, working security for the Luke Bryan Farm Tour against off-duty work policy, using his state-issued phone to contact women and exchange sexually explicit texts and photographs and using his position to influence a Tybee Island police officer to erase his girlfriend’s traffic citation.

Swicord told Capt. Allen Marlowe that he had sold the guns to an old friend who had been convicted on felony charges in 1999 and pardoned in 2011. That friend, Trey Britt, owned the bar and restaurant raided in February.

Swicord later told investigators he used his work phone to send explicit messages — a violation of the department’s technology policy — because he was in the midst of a divorce and did not want his wife to see the messages.