A Pike County Ohio deputy was arrested shortly after the death of Robert Rooker. Rooker was initially clocked at 52 miles per hour in a 45 zone. He then led the Pike County Sheriff’s Office on a fifteen-mile-long high speed pursuit. The pursuit ended with Rooker being shot multiple times by Deputy Joel Jenkins. It was not long after that, Jenkins was also arrested for killing his neighbor while drunk. After a lengthy trial, Jenkins was exonerated in the killing of Robert Rooker.
This was one of those cases that slipped through the cracks, or was intentionally kept out of the press. Rarely do we find police charged with a single murder, even after being caught on video. In this case, we have an officer arrested and charged with two separate murders that happened pretty much back to back. Both cases were presented to the grand jury, who then came back with the decision to charge Jenkins for homicide in the death of Rooker, and involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and tampering with evidence in the case of killing his neighbor.
In December 2015, Jenkins fought his termination through the police union and won the right (legally) to get his job back. Fortunately for the citizens of Pike County, the Sheriff wasn’t having any of it. He reinstated Jenkins, put him on leave, and fired him before his first week back. Even though Rooker was unarmed, and the department itself found that Jenkins had violated the law by killing Rooker, the jury found him not guilty in this week’s verdict. All too often juries are unable to wrap their head around the fact that cops are not the good guys and that they commit crimes more heinous than any they accuse.
In the case of Jenkins’ neighbor, identified as Jason Brady, he supposedly was intoxicated and showing Brady his gun, when he accidentally killed him. This was the second murder by Jenkins in a matter of weeks. After the shooting, he called the Pike County Sheriff on their administrative line, not 911, to report it. “There’s been an accidental discharge at my house. My neighbor, umm, he’s down. You guys are going to have to get here ASAP,” Jenkins told the dispatcher.
After having been involved in a shooting previously, the agency and the District Attorney took a hard look at Jenkins. One shooting makes you a victim of circumstance. Two shootings make you a cold-blooded killer. The trial for the murder of Brady is yet to come.
Pike County Sheriff’s Department is wrought with corruption. Since 2013, four deputies out of an agency that only employs thirteen, have been arrested for several charges ranging from murder to aggravated assault to sexual battery. The culture at Pike County Sheriff’s Office mimics the culture at departments across the US. Small agencies, like Pike County, often escape oversight since they are small and can avoid media scrutiny better than larger agencies. Perhaps it’s time for the Department of Justice to set their sights on Pike County law enforcement.
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