CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Clay County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant Christopher Coldiron, who was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol on suspicion of driving under the influence Friday night, was fired on Monday, a spokesman confirmed to News4JAX.
Coldiron was also arrested in December 2021 by FHP and accused of the same crime, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
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Coldiron was a patrol lieutenant with the Sheriff’s Office when he caused a crash in Bradford County in last year.
In that incident, FHP said Coldiron was driving a pickup truck on CR-233 in Bradford County when he went through a stop sign and collided with another pickup truck. A passenger riding with Coldiron suffered minor injuries. Coldiron wasn’t hurt, but he was arrested for DUI and booked into the Bradford County jail.
Court documents show Coldiron pled “no contest” in July and a judge convicted him of driving under the influence of alcohol. According to a court filing, Coldiron was sentenced to two days in jail but was given credit for time already served.
Coldiron, who served as a director of corrections, was demoted to lieutenant after his first DUI. The demotion resulted in a 24% pay cut.
Around the same time as the December DUI arrest, Coldiron was also the subject of an internal investigation.
According to documents obtained by News4JAX, Coldiron was involved in a confrontation in Bradford County with family members of his girlfriend over child custody in which law enforcement was called.
The investigation found that Coldiron tried to intimidate the responding deputies and challenged them to call their supervisors and even the sheriff, saying someone was going to jail if the child was removed from the home. After it was settled, Coldiron admitted he was wrong to have interfered. An internal investigation sustained complaints of interfering in the deputies’ duties, trying to influence a civil matter and conduct unbecoming.
According to a 2017 Facebook post, Coldiron previously served as the director for the Personnel and Professional Standards department.
