CCSO School Resource Officer Indicted

A former School Resource Officer in Cocke County has now been charged after authorities say she falsified timesheets. According to Cocke County Sheriff CJ Ball, an investigation began into 30 year old Leahla Hance in December 2024 after her supervisor learned she did not show up to work as scheduled. An internal investigation was launched and that led to the Tennessee Comptroller’s office getting involved. That investigation showed that Hance, who was the SRO at Centerview Elementary School, had failed to show up to work on 24 days, but yet had put down full work days on 16 of those timesheets. That led to Hance getting paid $2,992 in wages for days that she did not work.

Hance was placed on Administrative Leave while the investigation was onling. She then resigned from her postion as School Resource Officer on February 25 of this year. A Cocke County Grand Jury has now indicted Hance on charges of official misconduct, theft over $2500 and Forgery over $2500. She was also indicted for destruction and tampering with Government Records. Hance was arrested Tuesday morning and booked into the Cocke County jail. Her bond was set at $5,000, which she posted and was released.

Cocke County Sheriff CJ Ball says his department has taken several actions to prevent this type of misconduct.

“The Cocke County Sheriff’s Office has policies in place of ethical violations and taught regular in our annual in-service training. Law enforcement officers are held at a higher standard and we have 0 tolerance for violations once something is found. As the sheriff, I must apologize for the actions of this former officer and this is not what we stand for in our profession. It is our job to protect the integrity of what we stand for and to ensure that we are following the laws that we are sworn to uphold. Since our office found the violations and misconduct of this former officer, we have added a full-time supervisor that is responsible to monitor the day-to-day operations more efficiently, assigned patrol vehicles have GPS tracking devices to monitor, and each officer is required to contact dispatch at the beginning and end of each of shift on the radio to record their presence. We want to thank our administration for the internal review and investigation, the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, the 4th District Attorney General’s Office of James Dunn, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Bond was set at $5,000.00 and the defendant was arrested without incident and transported to the Cocke County Correctional Facility for processing.”