LaGRANGE – A Troup County Deputy was placed under arrest on Monday under Georgia’s Family Violence Act for stalking and simple assault.

The investigation and subsequent arrest of Deputy Lakee Snell came in response to a report filed by Snell’s girlfriend following an altercation with Snell on Saturday. The report was filed on Sunday when deputies from the Sheriff’s Department were called to her residence.

“It was brought to my attention (Monday) morning that Lakee Snell – who is our deputy – had an allegation, a report filed against him by a girlfriend that said he had threatened her,” said Sheriff James Woodruff. “Immediately, it is my practice to call the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) in because I certainly don’t want my office to do an investigation of one of our own when it is criminal in nature.”

The GBI agent began his investigation later that same day and arrested Snell at 4 p.m. Snell was fired from his position at the Sheriff’s Department following his arrest, and was transferred to another facility for 72 hours.

Snell had been employed as a deputy since 2015. This was the first major dispute between Snell and the woman to the department’s knowledge.

“They had had their issues before, but none that were serious like this,” said Lieutenant Jeff Duran.

Woodruff has a history of holding his department to a high standard and a no-tolerance approach to cases such as this, and reaffirmed his commitment to uphold the law for everyone in the county.

“I have to hold these men and women to the same standard that we hold everybody else to,” said Woodruff. “There’s not two sets of laws – one for us and one for the citizen – we all operate under the same law, and I have to hold them to that standard – and hold myself to that standard.”