Full Notification

Today warrants for filing false documents and violation of oath were administered for former deputy Robert Hawes who resigned from the Sheriff’s Office in lieu of termination for lying during an investigation.

The time line of events leading up to warrants being issued for former Deputy Robert Hawes goes as follows:

October 26, 2017 Hawes was required to turn in his Glock 42 so that it could be replaced with a Glock 43.   Hawes turned in a Glock 42 that he bought from a pawn shop instead.

On October 31, 2017,  the Sheriff’s Office quarter master while logging in the weapon realized that the serial number did not match and the weapon Hawes turned in was not the Sheriff’s Office weapon.   When asked about it, Hawes said he sold a Glock 42 to a APD officer and must have mistakenly sold the officer the Sheriff’s Office weapon instead.

The quarter master contacted Hawes several times between November 3rd and 6th  Of 2017 to see if he had gotten the weapon back from the APD Officer and received only excuses from Hawes.  After the repeated attempts to get Hawes to find the weapon did not work, the quarter master contacted a supervisor concerning the situation.

On November 7, 2017 Hawes file a false report with the Sheriff’s Office stating that in July of 2015 he accidentally sold the Sheriff’s Office Glock 42 to an Atlanta Police Officer named Deshaune Burns.  Hawes claimed he made several attempts to contact Burns, but found out he moved out of state.   It was discovered that no such officer ever existed and that Hawes had made the identity of Deshaune Burns up.  This report was turned in as an official police report with false information.

The weapon Hawes turned in instead of his Sheriff’s Office issued weapon was purchased by him on December 22, 2015.  This is important because it showed that the purchase was made 5 months after he claimed he sold his county issued Glock to a APD Officer that did not exist.

It was during this investigation that brought back to light was another Sheriff’s Office weapon that was lost/stolen in 2014 with no real explanation. Hawes stated  in a report that this weapon was left where his son and his son’s friends had access to it.  

Hawes was placed on administrative leave without pay, and resigned in lieu of termination.  It was brought to light that when Hawes was hired by the previous administration, he had resigned in lieu of termination from Atlanta PD for lying in an investigation as well.

After Hawes resignation, a citation ticket written and signed by Hawes showing that he had arrested a woman for suspended license was found in his patrol car.  When no record of this woman being arrested at the date and time cited on the ticket could be found, the female was contacted.  The woman said she was an exotic dancer and that Hawes wrote her the ticket so she could show it to her boyfriend to explain why she was out all night. 

Last week the exotic dancer came to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and did a full taped interview.  The exotic dancer said she first met Hawes when she was being transported to jail by him before the false ticket was written.  The exotic dancer stated that Hawes asked her what was a pretty girl like her was doing going to jail?  The exotic dancer stated that Hawes gave her his phone number and she still had his number in her phone as proof.  The exotic dancer went on to state that the night the ticket was written by Hawes, she was not really arrested confirming that it was a false ticket produced to provide her with an alibi for her boyfriend.

On July 30, 2018 a fraud warrant for Hawes’s son who is suspected in the two missing/stolen weapons was sent to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office from Henry County.  Two Sheriff’s Office Lieutenants failed to make proper notification of the warrant and one tipped off Hawes about the warrant for his son.   This took away the opportunity for law-enforcement to used the warrant as an investigative tool to possibly recover the two stolen Sheriff’s Office firearms.  

On July 31, 2018 several Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office went to former deputy Hawes’s house to arrest his son.  Hawes told them his son was not home and showed displeasure that they were at his house.

On August 9, 2018 a departmental disciplinary announcement email was sent to the Sheriff’s Office by the Sheriff stating that a Lieutenant was demoted to Sargeant and another Lieutenant was fired for lying during the investigation about tipping off Hawes about the warrant for his son.  The Sheriff clearly stated in the email that the case against Hawes would be reopened.

On August 10, 2018 Hawes wife began  emailing the Sheriff about love and fear.  The Sheriff asked her to stop.  Hawes’s wife continued to email the Sheriff about love and fear and after asking her to stop for the third time, the Sheriff gave his investigators direction in the email chain to take all of her emails to a Judge for review.   Hawes’s wife than began to email the Investigator a total of 3 times.  All of these email transmissions took place between 12pm and 6pm.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-1-PxtZwzmeC_6K6X3RJ6o6cKMPtbJFe

Realizing that the Sheriff was moving forward with seeking charges on the both of them, Hawes and his wife two hours later (August 10, 2018 at 8:12pm) posted on Facebook that Hawes was going to seek office against the Sheriff to see if that would deter him from moving forward.  It did not and Hawes’s wife was arrested on August 15, 2018 for harassing comunications.

Even though there is no record anywhere of an announcement by Hawes before August 10,  Hawes and his wife were able to manipulate the media into running stories to suggest that the actions on the Sheriff’s Office were in response to their announcement even-though the time line clearly shows it was not.

The investigation into the two missing/stolen Sheriff’s Office firearms is still ongoing. If anyone has any information that can help recover these weapons, please call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.