Alabama sheriff who legally pocketed inmate food money loses election

After an Alabama newspaper reported that Sheriff Todd Entrekin received more than $750,000 from a fund allocated to feed inmates in a jail he oversaw, the law enforcement official was defiant, employing a line of defense that has been increasingly trotted out of late by embattled politicians, posted The Crime Report. 

Entrekin, the sheriff of Etowah County and a Republican, played the victim, assailing the “liberal media” and lambasting the “miscellaneous fake news stories” that he said had made his family into targets. He did not deny that he had legally received money from the fund. On Tuesday, Entrekin was effectively voted out of office after losing in the primary by a margin of nearly two to one, the Washington Post reports. The winning challenger, Jonathan Horton, who had pledged during his campaign not to keep any of the feeding funds, “rode a wave of anti-Entrekin sentiment,” after the story made national news and followed Entrekin throughout the campaign.

The reports about Entrekin’s use of the food funds made national headlines. Entrekin and his wife last year purchased a four-bedroom house with a pool in an upscale neighborhood in Orange Beach, a Gulf Coast beach town. It was one of multiple properties worth more than $1.7 million that the couple owned together in the state. Entrekin’s salary is about $93,000 a year, but Entrekin filed disclosure forms that revealed that he had “received more than $750,000 worth of additional ‘compensation’ from a source he identified as ‘Food Provisions,’ ” AL.com reported. After news reports brought the issue to prominence, he held a news conference, defending the quality of the meals he provided inmates and even bringing a sample breakfast to show reporters.

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