Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Deputy of the Year' Arrested on Incest Charge

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

A former "Deputy of the Year" in Georgia is now behind bars, facing heinous charges including incest and cruelty to children. Michael Dorough was fired from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office following his arrest, and his wife, Ashley Dorough, faces charges as well. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber and Georgia attorney Randy Kessler dig into the allegations, a prior domestic dispute, and records of past disciplinary issues.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents bonus for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A former deputy of the year out in Georgia now finds himself on the wrong side of the law in a very big way. This is after he was taken into custody and fired for heinous alleged crimes. His wife faces charges as well. We're going to dig into what we know so far about this case with a Georgia attorney. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Okay, before we go any further, got to tell you about a... Amazing sponsor. Upside gets you cash back, extra cash back on everyday purchases like gas, groceries, takeout.

So here's what you do. You download Upside for free, you claim an offer at one of their 100,000-plus locations, and you pay like normal with your card, you verify the purchase, and just like that, money back. So say I need to get gas or I want to take out one night. I'm going to search for upside offers first, and after I spend, money appears in my app that I can then transfer right into my bank account. By the way, Upsides frequent users, they earn an average of $254 back a year. getting your cash back, click the link in the description or scan the QR code. Make sure to use promo code sidebar to get an extra 25 cents bonus on every gallon on your first tank of gas. In November of 2024, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office in Georgia posted a photo of Sergeant

Michael Durrell holding a sign with what he's grateful for written on it. God and family. The post got hundreds of likes and was shared dozens of times. But now that photo is going viral again, and this time for a much darker reason. Michael Dura is no longer a sheriff's deputy. The department says he was fired when he was arrested for multiple alleged crimes connected to his own family. Neighboring Jones County helped out with the arrest

and here's what they posted on their Facebook page on Tuesday, March 17th, quote, today with the assistance of the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, investigators with the Jones County Sheriff's Office arrested Sergeant Michael Scott Duro of the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. Duro is charged with incest, cruelty to children in the first degree, and influencing witnesses. His wife, Ashley Duro, has also been arrested and charged with cruelty to children in the first degree and influencing witnesses.

Not an incest charge, by the way. Both Michael and Ashley Duro are currently being held without bond. The Jones County Sheriff's Office takes all allegations of this nature seriously. and remains committed to thoroughly investigating these cases to ensure justice is served. This remains an active and ongoing investigation and additional charges are expected. We have no further comment or information at this time. Now, I'll also just tell you as a point of law, it's usually not surprising when you see both caregivers, both parents, a couple arrested, because usually it's very difficult for one parent,

one caregiver to be like, this abuse was going on. I had no idea this was going on without my not. knowledge, usually investigators will say both had knowledge, both participated, one enabled the other, one, you know, one could not have been completely kept in the dark, you know, that looking at the kids, they would have an understanding about what's happening. So just from my perspective, even though these are just allegations at this point, it's not surprising that both have been arrested. Again, but he's the only one seemingly charged with incest. Now, according to reporting from WMAZ TV in Macon, 45-year-old Michael is currently being held without bail in the the Hall County Jail. It's routine for current or former law enforcement to be housed in a jail that isn't connected to their employer, right? Conflict of interest issue. And you don't, and particularly with the public watching, you want to make sure that there is no even perception of bias or conflict. Now, 40-year-old Ashley, also being held with no bail, but she's at the Jones County Jail. Now, here's the thing. The exact details about what the Duros are accused of doing

have not been released to the public. It's not unusual if you're talking about these kind of crimes, if you're talking about children, if you're talking about the sensitive nature of these allegations, the law enforcement authorities, prosecutors, they're kind of limited in what they will share. But you do wonder what was the evidence here, and that's what I want to talk about.

But we have to just take a step back and think about something here. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office, their Facebook page, is full of different photos of Duro throughout his law enforcement career. From deputy to corporal to eventual sergeant, he made his way through the ranks. He was honored as deputy of the year, at least once by local community agencies. And when it comes to his family, there's a post from the department in 2019 showing five children with a new puppy that they adopted. And Ashley Duro commented at the time, all my babies. The Macon Telegraph published a statement from Bibb County Sheriff David Davis on Wednesday, where it says,

let me be clear, no one is above the law. We will fully cooperate with the legal process and the agencies investigating this case. We remain committed to protecting children and upholding the highest standards within the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. Here's the problem. Here's something that's going to be definitely talked about. This apparently isn't the first time that Mr. Duro has had his actions scrutinized. Why do I say that? Well, back in 2024, the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, it's also known as Post, investigated him after a domestic dispute case was filed against him.

This is according to records that were reviewed by WMAZ TV. Now, the outlet reports that in March of 2024, Duro and his then wife had decided to separate, which had led to arguments over who got which personal belongings. Duro's stepson allegedly confronted him, telling him not to put his hands on his mother, which then led to some sort of physical altercation on a porch. Duro told investigators, according to WMAZ TV,

that his stepson had lunged at him, so he restrained him but said he never struck anyone. Case was filed in Jones County in April of 2024, charged in Duro with battery, family violence. Prosecutors dropped the charge, though, in June of that year when the stepson decided not to move forward. However, I will tell you, the outlet says that Duro did do or did perform this kind of anger management course as part of the court process. But Post reportedly reviewed the dispute, put Doreau on a 36-month probation, that was tied to his law enforcement certification, which began in October of 2025. He was still certified, but under supervision. So again, allegations, but also tied to real-world consequences, right?

But now he's been fired from the sheriff's office. And WMAZ also reports that there were other incidents that were noted in the post records. 2010. Dura was apparently cited for being unprofessional to other incidents. He was cited as failing to follow proper procedure, violating policy by not wearing his his body-worn camera to a specific call, a suicide call. 2020, he reportedly failed to act promptly, putting off a call for more than 20 minutes. Now, further details about those incidents weren't available, but it does kind of give us an insight into who this defendant is,

does become a legal question about whether any of that will make its way into this current criminal case, but it does raise questions about his conduct, his professionalism. It does raise questions about what the department knew, why he was kept on the force. But by all accounts, he wasn't convicted of a crime per se. But now he is facing an entirely different set of allegations that have tremendous consequences. All right. So to talk about this investigation in this case, I want to bring back on to sidebar, attorney Randy Kessler out from Georgia.

Randy, thanks so much for taking the time. You know, it is always a very big deal when a law enforcement officer gets arrested, right? This one, though, these charges, these allegations are just so different. What are your thoughts on what you've seen so far? And also, how does law enforcement properly handle this type of investigation? There's so many issues, right? He's got a past. Why didn't we catch it before?

You know, recusal. Is he going to be judged by somebody who knows him? And whenever there's law enforcement, there's a whole bunch of things that go on to play, you've got to make sure that it's a fair process, that there's nobody that knows him that could have a bias, you know, is that mean probably every judge in that county is going to be recused. You know, the prosecution may have to bring in a separate DA, a separate prosecutor. And there are a whole bunch of legal mechanisms are going to play to make sure that it's a fair process for him and for the public. So that's the first thing that jumps into my mind is just

legally strategically. You want a clean trial, clean prosecution, so it survives appeal. I want to look at some of the charges here. I want to look at the wording of Georgia law. So first, you have this. A person commits the. offense of incest when a person engages in sexual intercourse or sodomy with a person whom he or she knows he or she is related to by blood, by adoption, or by marriage. So that includes mothers, fathers, their children, siblings, grandparents, aunt, uncles. And according to the criminal statute, a person convicted of the offense of incest shall be punished by imprisonment of not less than 10 nor more than 30 years, provided, however, that any person could

convicted of the offense of incest under this subsection with a child under the age of 14 years shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than 25 nor more than 50 years. Now, Randy, that makes sense when you look at the sentencing scheme based on the victim. But I have to ask what sort of evidence do you think investigators have or maybe looking for when it comes to a charge like this? I mean, first of all, the victim's testimony would be crucial to get the victim to testify. that. Then it's a he said, she said, and you know, you combine that with his history is past similar acts, which will probably come in at trial. Would it, would it come in? Or is it not relevant and prejudicial? It's prejudicial. Everything's prejudicial. Otherwise, you wouldn't introduce it,

right? But it's definitely probative because it's similar conduct. It's, you know, first of all, you're law enforcement. So you shouldn't have any bad acts and almost anything would be probative to show that you're not the person that you pretend to be. But if it's a, you know, domestic violence That's, again, a crime against a family member, a crime against somebody that, like in this situation, another family member, a child. So I think the prior acts are probably going to come in, maybe not using a camera during his suicide problem when he went to prevent a suicide. That one may not come in.

That may come in more in sentencing. But I think his prior behavior is going to come in. Plus, we don't yet know what other prior behavior there's been that hasn't been reported, which may come out of the wound. You know, no one likes to go after a sheriff. No one likes to complain about a sheriff. Everyone's afraid to call out law enforcement for doing something bad until the first person does it.

Then they might come out of the woodwork. So I expect we're going to see some other complaints, some other witnesses, some other victims. I mean, they would come out and basically say it's improper character evidence. It can't be allowed. You mentioned if you're dealing with minors or, you know, children, would they have to testify? Would they have to take the stand and explain what happened?

Because I can't, I don't know if there's another mechanism by which their testimony could get in that is in his form of hearsay. Right. And that's the balance. Right. On one hand, the victim should be allowed and we need the victim to testify because that's probably where most of the evidence is. Again, we don't know the records. We don't know if there's video. If there's eyewitnesses, if somebody heard the child and the child had an outcry to, you know, a mandated reporter, a psychologist, maybe one of those people. And again, it is hearsay. There's some protections that can be in camera, it can be in a closed environment outside the press. But the defendant has a right of confrontation. You can't just say to protect the child,

he's going to go, child, she's going to go talk to the judge privately without us knowing what they say to the judge. So, yeah, that's a balance. And, you know, I don't know how this child will withstand that, but 20 years from now, the child might be more happy that they testify than they didn't testify.

So it's a balance, but yes, you're right. I don't know how we get a prosecution successful prosecution without the victim testifying, and thus there's a whole bunch of evidence we just don't know about yet. Let me ask you this. Generally speaking, do you feel that incest cases

could be tough to prosecute in the sense that it is so disgusting, the allegations, it's so unthinkable that it could be tough for a jury to accept that a family member did this to a family member? It's always a problem. It's like the problem

when you have a mother accused of murder her child because we're always worried that people on the jury are going to say I can't wrap my head around that there's no way a mother would do that same thing here there's no way somebody would have sex with their own child it's it's a hard prosecution doesn't mean we don't do it I mean you don't take the job for only the easy cases I think it's going to be prosecution I don't think that's a reason not to prosecute but yes it does heighten the the drama and make it harder to make sure a jury understands human beings are capable of this I don't care if you're a deadbeat or for the sheriff of the county. I want to talk about the cruelty to children statute,

okay? So according to their inmate intake sheets, the duros each face one count of cruelty to children in the first degree. It's a connection with denying them sustenance. So here's what the state law says. When such person willfully deprives the child of necessary sustenance to the extent that the child's health or well-being is jeopardized. And the punishment for child cruelty hinges on the degree of the chart. So child cruelty in the first degree, carries a prison sentence of five to 20 years here. Randy, how are those cases typically prosecuted? Are those challenges?

Because could a parent or a caregiver say, hey, you know, listen, child didn't want to eat, child didn't eat that much? We did feed. How can you prove when we didn't feed? Or is it those cases you only prosecuted when externally the evidence is there? Like you're talking about emaciated children. You're talking about where it's clear.

is a lack of sustenance. Well, certainly. And I've been involved in those where there are emaciated children, children locked in a bathroom and in a cage, right? We've seen those in the past. But really, I think in this situation, it's option three that you didn't mention,

which is it's a lesser included offense. If you're pretty sure he committed incest, but you're not positive, well, if I think he committed incest, but I'm not sure. I know he at least did something bad. Maybe I'll convict him of this other charge. So they're going to throw that in

as a lesser including offense that is probably easier to prove, than the incest. Yes, like you said, it's hard to prove this because maybe a child refuses to eat. Maybe they didn't like the food. Maybe there's some allergy that we didn't know about. But that's not the main charges. The main charges, he did these horrible things. And if I can't wrap my head around him doing that, having incest with his child, I still think he's a bad guy if I'm on the jury and I hear the evidence. So I'm going to at least convict him of malnutrition, you know, not feeding a child, not giving substance to a child under the Georgia statute. By the way, when I'm talking about these

different sentences, even if there was a conviction here on the incest and this other charge, right, the cruelty to children charge, and you get the lower of each end, is it possible that the judge could stack them, that the sentences could run consecutively one after another? Sure. I mean, that's a, you know, they're independent charges. You don't, just because you commit five crimes at once doesn't mean that you get punished for one and the other four you don't really get punished for. That could happen. I mean, I think the real sentence and things, we have to worry about is if he is found guilty and if he has sentenced, oh my gosh, I mean, he's already in trouble being a sheriff being in jail and a sheriff accused of child abuse.

I mean, a non-shareff being accused of child abuse has a hard time surviving jail. The sheriff being accused of a petty crime has a hard time to jail. You know, how much money is we going to cross the state to keep this guy safe and away from potential harm in jail? He's got a host of problems beyond just a conviction and sentencing. Now there's a subsection. States, it shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to use intimidation, physical force, or threats to persuade another person by means of corruption or to attempt to do so,

or to engage in misleading conduct toward another person with intent to influence delay or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding, cause or induce any person to withhold testimony or a record, document, or other object from an official proceeding, alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with intent to impair the object's integrity or availability for use in official proceeding, evade legal process summoning that person to appear as a witness or to produce a record document or other object in an official proceeding or be absent from an official proceeding to which such a person has been summoned by legal process. And punishment for violating that subsection of the statute increases from one to five

years to two to ten. Randy, what should we be taking away from that? Those are procedural crimes, but, you know, if, again, it's an even lesser included offense. It's sort of the, well, we can't prove that he murdered somebody, but prove that he interfered with the investigation. We see that all the time. You see that in politics today. We see that in the government, not complying with subpoenas, not following protocol, not following procedure, especially when you're a government employee and you know the protocol and you know the import of the law, and you're out there enforcing the law against everybody else.

It smacks a little bit harder when it's somebody who's in law enforcement, an elected official or a paid government official who's not following procedural. regulations. And so they got to charge with that. It also makes them look worse. You know, you want to bias the jury and think this is not just a one issue thing. He's not just only an incest and a child abuser. He's also malnourished his child. He's also now interfered with the investigation and witnesses. They're throwing it all out of him. He's got a host of problems. Now, Randy, by the way, both defendants in this case, they're charged in relation to the same incident. Their charges kind of vary, though. Do you think that this is a type of case that they

be tried together or would his law enforcement background make his side of the case more complex? Actually, I'm waiting for her to turn state's evidence and say, you know what? You know, I'm not the one who had sex with somebody else. I knew about it. I didn't report. I might have done some bad stuff, but I can get aware of a much lower sentence if I cooperate. So that may be the ultimate result is that they're not tried together because she enters a plea deal. But I wouldn't think it'd be tried together.

I think you're right. him being law enforcement, a whole different dynamic. The jury is going to, if I was her, I'd want to be tried with him because I could then say, look, you know, look at him. He should know better. I was also under his, you know, pressure, and he was also intimidating me, and I couldn't do anything to defend myself. I just had to go along with it. I'm sorry. Whereas if she's tried separately, all that stuff was zero.

Now she's also independently being evaluated. So if I was a lawyer, if she didn't cut a deal and couldn't get a deal, I'd want to be trying together because of the focus would certainly be on the guy with the badge. Yep, that's a good point. All right. Randy Kessler, thank you for taking the time. Appreciate it. Always good to see, Jesse.

But that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody. You know, Thank you.