Ex-major Charmaine McGuffey — who was fired in 2017 for being a lesbian and calling attention to excessive force used on inmates — was elected sheriff of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
Her firing by then-sheriff Jim Neil came after rising through the ranks for 33 years, winning awards, and becoming the first female major in the office. Not only did she defeat Neil in the Democratic primary in April, she also beat Republican challenger Bruce Hoffbauer, who was endorsed by Neil.
“I decided that I can do a better job than him and I need to be back in that office so that I can finish the job I started, which is to bring true criminal-justice reform to the system,” she said on Saturday. “No person who knows what it’s like to go through the ordeal, the odyssey that I’ve been through, would ever just do this for revenge.”
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