KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Clay County Sheriff’s Office detective has been terminated over a social media post on Feb. 7.
Earlier in the month, the sheriff’s office shared the deputy was on paid administrative leave after being accused of sharing a racially disparaging meme, which was later deleted.
The department’s Professional Standards Unit looked into the issue.
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Tuesday, the sheriff’s office stated the unit determined the detective, Tom Butkovich, was found to have violated the department’s conduct and member speech, expression and social networking policies.
RELATED | Clay County's member speech, expression and social networking policy
“Therefore, the detective’s employment has been terminated,” the sheriff’s office shared on social media. “As this is a personnel matter, no further information will be released.”
The meme in question was shared shortly after a Homeland Security Investigations operation at El Potro in Liberty.
In the meme, a fake image portraying Donald Trump holding a gun out a car window included the words, “Time to put the ‘panic’ back in Hispanic.’”
Butkovich was hired in 2021.
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