The Fayetteville Flyer is reporting (via TMZ) that Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder has decided to fire Jessie Lunderby.  Helder wrote a long letter that explains his reasoning.  A good amount of personal annoyance emanates from the text.  Helder also engages in some wild doublespeak about his reasoning.   Here’s an excerpt of what I am talking about:

“My decision to move on without you is not a decision to impose discipline…If I were to choose to keep you as an employee, I would go down the road of deciding whether to impose discipline.  Since I have decided to take a different path–choosing another employee–there is no reason to decide to impose discipline.  So, you may truthfully tell others that your employment termination was not a disciplinary termination.  It is a business decision…”

Uhhh, yeah.  So, in other words, I’m not going to punish you, I’m just going to fire you.  Does Helder think anyone in their right mind won’t see through that?  Seriously?

Jessie refused to sign the termination letter.

I imagine that this will be good for Jessie’s fifteen minutes of fame.  It will also be bad for Fayetteville.  We’ll will get tons of negative press as a prude little town that has no respect for free-expression.  There will likely be a lawsuit.  And I also imagine this will hurt Helder in the next election.

I guess posing nude really is worse than locking someone up for four days without food, water, or a bathroom.