Marry him or you're suspended!

Which is the moral of this story in today's Tampa Tribune. To be honest, I have trouble comprehending all the parties involved.

Breakfast- Basil's Blog

LARGO - Marry him or else.

That was the order a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office major gave two years ago to a clerk at the jail who was seeing a man who had a minor criminal record.

It is against sheriff's policy for employees, including those who operate the Pinellas County Jail, to consort with people convicted of crimes -- unless the person is an immediate family member.

Marrying a person makes them an immediate family member. The clerk, Ruth Hurley, 47, had until March 23, 2004, to marry David Leroy Floyd, a 30-year-old construction worker with a string of convictions for writing bad checks.

This summer it became obvious Hurley had not made the deadline when she wrote a supervisor at the jail that Floyd had been arrested again, sheriff's internal affairs documents show. The charge stemmed from a child-support obligation.

Hurley's explanation for the delay: As a Canadian citizen, she had trouble getting proper paperwork from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

She thought being engaged sufficed.

"We're still in love with each other; that's what I base it at," she told internal affairs investigators.

In August, or the month after Floyd's most recent arrest, the couple were married in Georgia.
It was too late, officials said. Hurley received a five-day suspension that will end Thursday.