Sheriff Vernon Betts Fires Deputy Who Posted Racy Photo on Grindr

Jerrett Turner says he was fired for being gay

Sep 8, 2023 at 8:03 am

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CITY OF ST. LOUIS

St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts says he fired a deputy for violating the department's social media policy.

A St. Louis sheriff's deputy says that he was fired yesterday by Sheriff Vernon Betts for no reason other than his sexual orientation.

Jerrett Turner, 29, has been a deputy with the sheriff's department since April. He says that after his lunch break on Thursday he was called into Betts' office where he was told that someone had sent Betts photos that showed Turner bearing his behind.

Turner says he posted the photos to the Grindr dating app several years ago but had deleted the app long before starting work as a deputy.

He says he's confident that if all the facts were the same, but that he was a straight man, he wouldn't have been forced out of the department. He said that being a deputy had been a dream of his.

"It's 2023," Turner says. "Everybody should be treated equally, whether you're gay or you're straight."

However, Betts says that Turner's firing had nothing to do with him being gay.

"It wasn't because of his sexual orientation," Betts says. "It's because of him having posted on some social media. He's butt naked and we have a policy, and he knows that."

Betts said that someone identifying himself as "a social media influencer" called him earlier in the day Thursday to tell him that someone else was potentially going to try to use the photos of Turner against Betts. In Betts' words, this unidentified adversary intended to "put it out there that this was what the sheriff had going on on the job, or something to that effect."

"[Deputies] can't share stuff on social media as it relates to the sheriff's department and even to them personally in this light," Betts tells the RFT of his department's social media policy. "Because when you're now employed with the sheriff's department, you represent Vernon Betts, you represent the the sheriff's department."

Last month, Turner was one of 16 people who had to be rehired by the sheriff's office when a judge found that the sheriff hadn't been following the proper procedures for bringing new deputies into the department.

Alfred Montgomery, a former deputy who has declared his candidacy for sheriff, is criticizing Betts for firing Turner. He tells the RFT, "This deputy's rights were completely taken away from him."