JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Four months after criminal charges against a Duval County Public Schools police officer were dropped, the school district welcomed him back to the force.
On Thursday, the school district announced it is rehiring Sean MacMaster after he was exonerated of all charges stemming from a Michigan sex crimes case.
Recommended Videos
MacMaster, 46, passed a polygraph test and a psychological evaluation, and will return to duty starting on March 16.
“We are pleased that MacMaster, a highly valued and experienced law enforcement officer, is back among our team of police officers working to keep our schools secure and our students and staff safe,” district spokesman Tracy Pierce said.
Pierce said MacMaster will not return to the police force as a lieutenant because there currently are no vacancies at that rank, but he said MacMaster would be considered alongside other qualified candidates should there be an opening in the future.
MacMaster was arrested last May on an out-of-state warrant charging him with two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a child. A Michigan judge dropped those charges in December shortly after the state’s attorney general filed a motion to dismiss its case.
The case first came under scrutiny after an investigation by Detroit’s WXYZ-TV found serious flaws with the allegations, which appear to have spawned from a custody battle between MacMaster and his ex-wife. WXYZ found that MacMaster’s ex-wife shopped the allegations to several police agencies, which passed on the case due to a lack of evidence, before Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office pursued it.
According to the report, MacMaster was recording when his ex-wife told him she had a “get-out-of-jail-free card“ and offered to “make this go away” on the condition that he gave up his parental rights.
The case came under the microscope again when Nessel’s office reopened all of the cases handled by ex-Assistant Attorney General Brian Kolodziej. Kolodziej resigned rather than be fired once authorities found out he had a relationship with a sexual assault victim whose case he oversaw.