BATON ROUGE - An East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office employee faces ethics fines and charges after an investigation by the state ethics commission.

The watchdog body said Mike Crawford accepted gifts from a vendor while working as a purchaser for the sheriff's office in 2013. Crawford identifies himself as a lieutenant for the sheriff's office on a social media account.

The ethics commission said in its charge against Crawford, he illegally took advantage of a salesman's timeshare at Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2013. The commission said Crawford got a free stay at a resort there from an employee at Beta Technology in Houston. The company sold cleaning products to the sheriff's office, the ethics commission said.

It's not clear how long the stay was for, but the ethics commission said Crawford paid $423.31 for maintenance fees associated with the stay at the Villa at Disney World's Animal Kingdom. The villa rents for about $342.00 per night.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics asks for a hearing on charges against both Crawford and the salesman.

The sheriff's office self-reported the situation and the ethics commission did its own investigation, a sheriff's office spokesperson said. 
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