Four Cherokee County firefighters have been terminated following an investigation into allegations of misconduct.
Capt. Chuck Foster, Capt. Mike Malone and firefighters Chad Huff and Brandon Wilson are appealing the decisions, according to media reports.
The county’s investigation started in October when a former firefighter accused Foster of years of sexual harassment. He denied the allegations, but officials concluded the harassment occurred, according to a 256-page report from the county attorney’s office that details the investigation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained that report this week through an open records request.
According to the report, the accuser came forward with other allegations, including a cellphone image of Huff and Wilson engaged in a lewd act. Malone took the photo in March 2014 while the men were in uniform at station No. 1 along Bells Ferry Road, investigators found.
The photo had been sent to the accuser to cheer her up after she was fired for failing a drug test, officials said in the report.
Huff, Wilson and Malone said they weren’t trying to offend anyone with the photo; they were simply having fun. They always played jokes on each other, they said.
“It’s like a frat house without the beer,” Huff told investigators about the culture at the fire department.
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