BATON ROUGE - Commissioner Troy Hebert said he fired a veteran Alcohol and Tobacco Control agent after he learned the agent faked payroll records and made threatening, racist, sexual text messages on a state-issued cell phone.

Hebert said the agent, Brette Tingle, texted several former ATC employees and made disparaging comments and slurs about African Americans as well as a former agent of Middle Eastern descent, which included the following conversation:

Former ATC Agent: "Where is he going?"
Tingle: "Not in law enforcement. Said something spiritual. Probably joining the Jihad."
Former ATC Agent: "Yikes. Maybe he'll suicide bomb maniac's (Commissioner Hebert's) office"
Tingle: "I'm hoping!!!"

Hebert said Tingle also sent sexually-charged texts about an agent requesting leave for her pregnancy. His time sheets also showed he claimed that he worked 37 days when his GPS unit on his state vehicle showed he was actually at home, according to Hebert, and his state-issued phone had texts showing he was not working during the claimed time.

"This type of behavior will not be tolerated at ATC," Hebert said. "It jeopardizes ATC's creditability, as well as ATC's ability to serve everyone in the state fairly and impartially."

Hebert said Tingle was also fired for failing to follow directives, improperly recording someone, unauthorized secondary employment, avoiding discipline and lying to a supervisor.

The commissioner said some of the information they found is also being sent to state and federal law enforcement agencies to determine if any criminal statutes were broken.