Sex offender became south Alabama fire chief

News4 Fact Finder Caroline Gerhart spoke with the victims of Joel Drawdy , who became a small-town fire chief in south Alabama, for the first time.

Jake recalled the abuse, “would happen at family get-togethers, a birthday party, Thanksgiving, Christmas, he’d pull me to the side or we’d go to the grocery store, he would just do things to me, everywhere.” Nick was nine back then and didn’t pursue charges. But Nick was a witness in the legal case involving Jake.

Nick shared a similar sentiment when he told News4, “At this point in time I just wish I had done more back then than I did. So that maybe he would’ve paid a bigger price.”Mark Whittleton is a Texasville Alabama Volunteer Firefighter, and years after his molestation charges in Florida, Joe Drawdy became Whittleton’s chief.Whittleton also recalled Joe’s reaction when the Barbour County Sheriff at the time of his arrival was preparing to put out the notices about his sex offender registry.

“He’s a great loss to our fire department, he stepped down because of all this going on, he didn’t want to hurt the fire department, but without Joe here, it’s hurt the ability to do fire calls,” said Whittleton.He provided a message for his convicted abuser, “I forgive you for what you’ve done to me, but I’ll never forget.”

After making that social media post, Barber and Seaborn began to research sex offender laws across the country. “So, for us, it was an easy thing to engage,” Underwood said, “you know we put the victim in some circumstances if not all, the victim needs to come first. I know it’s a volunteer position that helps others, but at the same time it actually gave them opportunity to help them break the law.”

Caroline Gerhart Joel Drawdy Texasville Texasville Alabama Fire Chief Sex Crimes Sex Offender Can Sex Offenders Be First Responders First Responders Alabama Legislative Session

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