Jake Mele

Introduction

Jake Mele is a former Aiken County, South Carolina deputy sheriff who was fired on October 14, 2026, after an internal investigation concluded he did not work an off-duty security job he had agreed to cover, reported that he had worked it, and collected the pay anyway. The sheriff’s office terminated him for misconduct in office and conduct unbecoming an officer, referred his case to the state body that controls law-enforcement certifications, and asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to open its own criminal investigation. The allegations have not been tested in court, and Mele has not publicly responded to them.

Background Information

Mele was hired by Aiken County on September 13, 2024, and served roughly two years as a deputy with the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office before the termination. Like many deputies, he was approved to take off-duty security work, a common arrangement in which an officer privately contracts to staff events or sites while remaining a county employee. The sheriff’s office did not identify the employer or location of the off-duty job in question, and did not disclose how much Mele was paid for the shift at issue.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

The case began with a complaint filed October 9, 2026. The sheriff’s office investigation that followed found, per its news release, that Mele had agreed to cover an off-duty job, did not work it, reported that he had, and received payment for the shift. Five days after the complaint, on October 14, the office terminated him, citing misconduct in office and conduct unbecoming — the two benchmarks for officer dishonesty in South Carolina’s statute governing law-enforcement conduct. In practical terms, the finding was that a sworn deputy had converted a falsified timesheet into county-adjacent pay, an offense category one step removed from theft but treated by the office as integrity failure warranting both dismissal and outside referral.

The consequences were layered: beyond the firing, the sheriff’s office said it would submit a misconduct-in-office matter to the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy concerning Mele’s law-enforcement certification — the mechanism by which the state can revoke an officer’s ability to police anywhere in South Carolina — and said the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division had been contacted to investigate further. Sheriff Martin Sawyer framed the decision in terms of institutional trust: “The integrity of this office is essential to maintaining the trust of the community we serve. Our job is to uphold the law and the standards our community requires.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case drew regional coverage for its ordinariness — a deputy, a shift he did not show up for, and a timesheet that said he had — and for the speed of the response: five days from complaint to termination, with both the certification referral and the SLED criminal referral announced in the same news release. The office’s transparency about the referral chain was noted as the meaningful part of the response; whether prosecutors pursue charges, the academy process alone can end a South Carolina policing career by revoking certification. The sheriff’s office did not say whether Mele has responded to the allegations.

Current Status

Mele’s employment with Aiken County ended October 14, 2026. The certification matter is pending before the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, and SLED has been asked to investigate; no criminal charge appears in the fetched record, and no court filing by or against Mele has been reported. The allegations against him remain unproven claims from an internal administrative investigation and a sheriff’s office news release.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Two years into a deputy’s badge, Mele now faces the standard trifecta for South Carolina integrity cases: termination, a certification challenge that could bar him from law enforcement statewide, and a state investigative referral that could become criminal. The fiscal amount at issue — one shift’s pay — was never the measure of the case; the sheriff’s release treated the false reporting itself as the offense. For Aiken County, the case stands as a stated example that off-duty work falls under the same integrity rules as county service, a message Sawyer tied directly to community trust.

Sources

• WACH Fox (Columbia, SC), “Aiken County deputy fired after sheriff’s office says he falsely reported working off-duty,” October 2026 — source