RECORD SHOWS PRAISE, PROBLEMS WITH EX-RICHMOND INVESTIGATOR

A review of the personnel records of a Richmond County sheriff's
investigator who resigned last week after allegations that he had sex
with an informant show both praise and past problems.

For example, former Investigator Daniel Stenger was lauded in 2000 for
chasing a burglary suspect into 4-feet-deep swampy water near
Milledgeville Road after coming upon the man and his accomplice hiding
outside a local automotive store.

Four years later, coworkers also praised him in a letter to Sheriff
Ronnie Strength for stopping and questioning a 45-year-old man who was
talking to two teenagers in the 2500 block of Lyman Street. The man
later admitted to propositioning the young girls for sex.

But the same file shows he had problems misplacing important casework.
He also was caught drinking at the Augusta National Boat Races before
working a special assignment at a downtown club. He was suspended for
15 days and put on 12 months probation for the last incident.

Stenger resigned Monday, a week after an attorney hired by a drug-case
informant contacted the department and claimed the policeman had been
involved in a sexual relationship with his client. The woman, whose
name is being withheld because of the ongoing investigation and her
status as a confidential informant, claimed to have had been involved
with the investigator since December.

On Wednesday, the sheriff the woman had been providing information to
investigators in connection to a meth bust in August. The informant's
boyfriend was arrested in that bust.

Stenger was not the lead investigator on the case but he had been
contributing to the investigation since October.

Strength said he did not think the allegations would derail the drug
case against the woman's boyfriend.

District Attorney Ashley Wright said she cannot comment on any of
Stenger's cases because they are pending but said her office will
assess each case to determine whether it is able to meet "our burden
of proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

She said last week that it's rare that an investigator works alone on
a case and that typically there is more than one witness available to
testify.

"Generally speaking, evidence of bad acts are not admissible in a
trial unless they are relevant to that particular case," Wright wrote
in an e-mail.

Stenger has been with the Richmond County Sheriff's Department 13
years and worked in the narcotics division for the last four years.