HCSO Sheriff Chad Chronister claims 6 accused in academic cheating scandal ‘paid with their careers’

TAMPA, Fla. - Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said no stone was left unturned as his agency’s internal affairs team investigated allegations of academic cheating that left six high-level officials without a job. 

"There's no one in this office, including me, that's irreplaceable," Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said.

The backstory:

At the end of July, Chief Deputy Anthony Collins resigned four days after the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office received a tip containing the allegations.

Chronister said on July 19 that the sheriff's office received an email from Collins' wife. In the email, she alleged that Collins had paid someone to help him complete coursework for training classes at the FBI National Academy.

The email contained screenshots of email correspondence between Collins and what Chronister determined to be a "paper writer." 

"We even flew investigators up to New Hampshire to meet with the paper writer and interview him, where he admitted writing papers for every one of the employees involved," Chronister said.

In one of the emails, the "paper writer" stated, "Here is the paper. It meets the guidelines and requirements without focusing too much on the personal."

"He was the author of these papers," Chronister said. "A lot of people ask me, 'Do you think he was a tutor?' He may have been a tutor, but what we do know at this point is some people took it too far."

The email also included allegations concerning Collins' personal and family life.

The day after the sheriff's office received the tip, Chronister said Collins was placed on administrative leave, so an informal inquiry could be done. In the meantime, Chronister said he spoke to the 21-year veteran of the sheriff's office.

"'Okay, let me find out how egregious this is,'" Chronister said. "On a scale of zero to 10, zero means he completed none of your coursework, 10 meaning he did all of it.' He told me, 'At least a five.'"

Chronister said Collins resigned the following day.

Chronister said that Collins resigned before a formal investigation could be launched into the allegation of academic cheating, but he believes it would have been substantiated based on the evidence.

The sheriff's office said it also had to report the matter to the FBI National Academy.

On October 17, 2025, Colonel Christopher Rule and Colonel Michael Hannaford resigned in response to an internal investigation.

Last week, HCSO confirmed that Captain Zuleydis Stearns and Captain Marvin Johnson were fired amid the academic cheating scandal. 

Johnson was the deputy commander for HCSO's patrol operations. Stearns oversaw its communications and records section. 

Dig deeper:

The sheriff said he added two additional investigators and four investigative supervisors to the internal investigative team with the goal of expediting the process and ensuring the process was handled thoroughly.

"These actions represent a lapse in judgement and a breach of the higher professional and ethical standards that law enforcement must hold ourselves to," Chronister said. 

Chronister said those involved are not bad people. 

"What happened here was not a lack of ability or care. It was a shortcut of poor judgement. A choice that, while wrong, is not malicious."

The sheriff stressed that the investigation was not criminal. 

He also said that taking a promotional exam only makes an employee eligible for employment.

Those involved can no longer testify, which means their services beyond their careers are over. 

What they're saying:

"They paid with their careers," Chronister said. "Their careers in law enforcement are over. Every single person had the opportunity to resign. The two that I terminated made a decision that they were going to go through the process. They wanted to come into internal affairs. They felt it wasn’t as egregious as I felt. They felt they could win or make sure the allegations against them weren’t sustained. That wasn’t the case."

Chronister added that he doesn’t know if there are additional HCSO employees who may have academic integrity issues. 

"I don’t know who was involved and who was not involved," Chronister shared. 

"They were my trusted advisors," Chronister said. "They were the individuals responsible for driving the culture, policy, procedure and establishing this level of professionalism."

"We have almost 4,000 employees," Chronister said. "The actions of a few will never define the professionalism of this agency."

Another internal investigation

In a separate, unrelated matter, the sheriff said they began looking into Major James Jackson, who was working off-duty jobs during his normal work hours. 

"Upon learning this, I asked for a comparison of all salaried employees – looking at their work hours and their off-duty employment. We found several overlaps, but we also discovered that our policy did not prohibit them from flexing additional hours accrued from after-hours meetings, holidays, weekends, overnight call-out and activities such as charity events. The individuals with overlaps were exonerated, and our policy was updated, so this will never happen again."

Chronister adds that the affected employees will forfeit their accrual to account for the overlap. 

Jackson was on that list. 

Investigators discovered that he violated several procedures involving off-duty employment and the acceptance of gratuities. 

"If he had not chosen to retire, I would have terminated his employment for these violations," Chronister said. 

Hillsborough County