A police officer, who had been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the conclusion of an investigation into alleged questionable content on his personal MySpace Web site, has resigned.

According to Timesnews.net, Patrolman Eric Manis has submitted his resignation to the Kingsport Police Department after an internal investigation was launched into his MySpace postings.

Manis worked with the Kingsport Police Department since September 2003 and was assigned to the annual local Funfest fesival last month. He was suspended on August 9 after posting on MySpace.

Kingsport Police Chief Gale Osborne said the profile contained comments directed against the general public attending Funfest. It referenced Manis using an assault rifle on visitors to FunFest.

A short press release about Manis’ resignation said: “An appropriate internal and external review of the matter has been concluded, and there is no need for further action found by our investigation. This remains a personnel issue, and longstanding city policy is not to discuss personnel issues and therefore, there will be no additional statements about the matter.”

Early in the investigation, Osborne told Timesnews.net, “We don’t condone or tolerate any kind of unprofessional conduct, but at the same time we have to gather the facts and we operate on the facts rather than hearsay…and if we see that he’s in violation of the general orders, it’ll certainly be dealt with appropriately.”

With the news of his resignation, Osborne said, it appears Manis decided to resolve the matter in his own way.

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Entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 11:41 pm under Uncategorized.

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