Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd made national headlines twice lately, first getting criticized by comedian John Oliver on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” then for posting a viral recruitment video targeting federal agents. You can watch the John Oliver bit for yourself below at the 26:40 mark.
On March 23, Oliver dedicated a segment to police sting operations, singling out Judd as a prime example of law enforcement using “theatrical” tactics. Oliver specifically criticized the sheriff’s highly publicized sex sting operations with names like “Cyber Guardian,” “Naughty Not Nice 2,” and “Child Protector 2,” which Oliver said, “sound less like police operations and more like Steven Seagal movies.”
Oliver argued that police departments have become “addicted to stings” that manufacture crime while doing little to address actual conditions that make people vulnerable.
The segment focused on a lawsuit filed by a woman who came to Judd’s department at age 12, reporting she had been sexually abused by her adoptive father for years. According to Oliver, the detective handling her case failed to collect key evidence and conducted an inappropriate interview. The department charged the girl with giving false information to law enforcement, placed her on probation, and made her write apology letters to both her abuser and the sheriff’s office.
That woman was then abused again, during which she took photos and video of the incident with her phone, and was able to have the abuser arrested and sentenced to 17 years in prison. That woman is now suing Judd’s office, and you can read all about it in this piece by Anthony Talcott for News 6.
“Maybe Grady Judd’s office would have been a little better at protecting an actual child if they weren’t spending all day pretending to be one online,” Oliver said. Judd’s office called the woman’s lawsuit “frivolous and baseless” but did not respond to Oliver’s request for comment.
Oliver’s video had almost 3 million views at the time of this post.
