December 30th, 2025 by WCBC Radio

The grand jury indictment against former Cumberland City Police Captain James Burt has been sealed by the courts so details are not yet known. Cumberland’s Mayor and City Council became aware of issues involving the officer earlier this year and Mayor Ray Morriss tells WCBC they took steps to remove Burt from active duties…

    

“We saw that something – the former chief, Chief Ternent, told us about an issue and we took him out of service and turned it over to the State’s Attorney’s office and since then, the city isn’t really involved.”

There have been questions surrounding whether the City or former police chief Chuck Ternent could have taken action earlier – Councilman Rock Cioni tells WCBC he doesn’t think that’s the case…

   

“The answer is I don’t think we had the opportunity to do that because a lot of this came to light after complaints were made. I think that the City acted as appropriately as the law would allow and as quickly as the law would allow.”