DALTON, Ga. — District Attorney Bert Poston didn’t respond to an email or a telephone message left at his office on Monday inquiring about his review of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation report on Varnell Police Chief Lyle Grant.

Poston had told a reporter he hoped to review the report by the week of April 15 “at the latest,” but in an email on April 17 he said he would not have a determination by April 18 and asked the newspaper to contact him on Monday, April 29, following a week out of town.

Grant’s actions were investigated by the GBI in March after the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office referred Grant’s providing a county-owned, encrypted radio to Bob Cummings, owner of Bob’s Wrecker Service in Dalton, to the GBI. The sheriff’s office said in a statement, “The sheriff’s office initiated an investigation after recovering an encrypted portable radio which contained numerous frequencies that were being used throughout the county. It was determined shortly after starting the investigation that criminal charges could arise from this incident, therefore the case was turned over to the GBI to investigate.”

A case summary in a sheriff’s office incident report mentions the possibility of reckless conduct “due to Chief Grant providing an encrypted police radio to a private citizen and his employees to use and disregarding the potential safety risks to law enforcement officers engaged in undercover/sting/narcotics operations. A private citizen, his employees and customers could be privy to and monitor sensitive law enforcement operations such as ‘buy busts,’ undercover drug operations and search warrant executions in real time on encrypted channels, (posing) a substantial and unjustifiable risk to law enforcement (officers’) safety.”

The case summary discusses theft by conversion “due to Chief Grant converting Whitfield County-owned property to private use when he knowingly and willfully gave/loaned the radio to Robert Cummings to use in his private business.”

Grant told a reporter in March that Bob’s is the only towing service that applied to be on Varnell’s rotation this year to be called when wrecks occur.

“When we would have an accident, he would be alerted to it a little bit quicker (with the radio),” Grant said. “He would hear when we have a wreck here in Varnell and dispatch a wrecker here a little bit quicker.”

“I did not intend to violate any laws or policies. I only intended to benefit the city of Varnell,” Grant said.