A Manatee County Sheriff's sergeant was suspended without pay for making a joke about the Bible and President Barack Obama.
The incident happened at the Manatee County Jail in Palmetto.
In September, Corrections Sergeant Matthew Neu used a Bible inside his office meant to be distributed to the inmates and used it for a joke.
Neu wrote a note about a Bible verse and called it "The Obama prayer." He then put the piece of paper inside a Bible and placed it on a coworker's desk.
When Sergeant Martha Nash opened the bible, she found Psalm 109, Verse-8 circled, which states: "Let his days be few, may another take his place of leadership."
In a newly released Internal Affairs report, Sergeant Nash said, "she was shocked by the finding and thought whoever left it wanted Obama dead."
An investigation revealed Sergeant Matthew Neu, who is outspoken about his political beliefs, and has worked for the sheriff's office for 16 years, was behind it.
Sergeant Neu said he received an e-mail about the verse and thought it was funny. He said he circled the verse as a joke and it was not meant to offend Nash or anyone else.
In the report he stated, "his intent was to take the Bible and show it to others but he got busy and forgot about it."
He also said: "Do I like Obama as a President? No." However, he said, "There's no racial hate or anything like that involved in it."
He went onto say, "In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the smart thing to do."
The sheriff's office agreed and found that Sergeant Neu violated a code of ethics policy. He was suspended for three days.
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