ATLANTIC BEACH - Last July the town of Atlantic Beach fired its entire police force.
The officers were let go to save thousands of dollars, according to Interim Town Manager Benny Webb.
But in August, records show, the town began to hire again.
This time one of the officers it brought on was John Jackson.
Records from the Criminal Justice Academy show Jackson has worked for at least six other police departments in South Carolina since 2006.
In 2006 he worked for the Richland County Sheriff's Office.
Records indicate Jackson responded to a call on September 26, 2006 that a man was pretending to be an FBI agent.
Police arrested the man, and Jackson searched his car.
In separate emails sent from the suspect to law enforcement on September 29, 2006 and October 2, 2006, the suspect accused Jackson of stealing his digital camera, a pair of sunglasses, and a flashlight from the car.
Jackson denied the claims but was charged with petite larceny on October 30, 2006.
A jury found Jackson not guilty in March 2007, but in a letter from the justice academy to one of Jackson’s future employers, Former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin, Jackson "admitted to taking the articles in question".
The academy put Jackson on two years probation.
Despite Jackson's admission, Melvin hired him to work for the Lee County Sheriff’s Department in July 2007.
In April 2010, Melvin was arrested on federal drug related charges.
In December 2010, a Columbia, SC TV crew from WIS recorded Deputy Jackson working off duty security outside a Lee County nightclub.
The video shows Jackson patted down a female and then patted her twice on the buttocks.
In a later TV interview Jackson called the incident a "joke".
"Her and I were playing on each other,” said Jackson. “That's all that was and it was taken out of context."
Later in the video, Jackson put his arms around another woman and thrust his pelvis into her.
"Her other friend that was on the video was choking and I did try to help her by giving her the Heimlich maneuver," Jackson said.
Lee County's new sheriff fired Jackson for misconduct.
After Jackson's termination the Criminal Justice Academy maintained his eligibility to be a police officer in the state.
"Sometimes its confusing to people what they feel misconduct might be,” said Hubert Harrell, Director of the Criminal Justice Academy.
“For instance if you violate an agency policy you may consider it misconduct because ‘It’s my agency and you violated my policy’, but by the statute it is not misconduct."
News 13 made nine attempts in a three week span to contact the Atlantic Beach Interim Town Manager to discuss why, with all these incidents in Jackson’s record, the town hired him.
Webb did not return one call or message.
Right before Jackson was hired in Atlantic Beach, he worked for society hill.
Society Hill’s police chief said Jackson is currently under investigation for an undisclosed incident that occurred while he was employed there.
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