A former local law enforcement officer was arrested by the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon and charged with arson, theft of off-road diesel fuel and other charges, according to the Decatur County Jail.
Kyle Rufus Duke, 41, of Duke-Wells Road, Faceville, Ga., was arrested June 19 on six warrants. Decatur County Sheriff Wiley Griffin said the warrants were issued by three different agencies: the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Georgia State Patrol.
Duke formerly worked for the Georgia State Patrol for several years, and had also worked at Bainbridge Public Safety and the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office.
Duke faces charges of arson in the first degree, criminal damage to property in the first degree, insurance fraud, felony theft by taking, giving false statements and making a false statement in an application, according to the Decatur County Jail.
The felony theft by taking warrant was issued by the Sheriff’s Office and stems from an investigation into an incident reported on Jan. 20, 2014 in which Duke is believed to have been involved, Sheriff’s Office Investigator Terry Phillips said.
On Jan. 20, a contractor working at a mineral mine site located on land owned by BASF off Drane Smith Road in southern Decatur County reported that approximately 1,000 gallons of off-road diesel fuel had gone missing from a tank sometime during the previous night.
Subsequent investigation into the missing fuel led to the January 27 arrests of Katherine Kendall King of Quincy, Fla., and Raymond Lamar Brown Jr. of Bainbridge, according to Phillips. On the same day the theft was reported, Sheriff’s deputies located a 550-gallon fuel tank fuel of diesel fuel on Brown’s property on Bettstown Road. At the time the tank was found and seized, Duke made statements to Sheriff’s deputies regarding the incident, Phillips said.
Investigator Phillips said an investigation is still ongoing and other charges may be filed in the future.
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