Wednesday, Aug. 7, The Alabama Ethics Commission resolved its case against former Cullman City Schools Archery Director Branch Whitlock.

The commission had previously determined Whitlock had committed one minor violation of the Alabama Ethics Act and forwarded the details of the case to Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker along with a recommendation for an administrative resolution.

By statute, details for ethics complaints and investigations are protected under Alabama’s Grand Jury Secrecy restrictions. However, Whitlock previously provided The Times with insight into the nature of the complaint against him.

He said a complaint was filed around the end of the 2022-2023 school year regarding his decision to allow archery teams under his supervision to compete in tournaments hosted by his personally owned business, Cullman Basketball Complex. While Whitlock said he had attended annual online ethics training courses, because the tournaments were not sanctioned by the Cullman City School District and previously submitted expense reports documenting participation in his business’s tournaments, he did not believe he had violated the Ethics Act at the time.

The commission announced Crocker had responded favorably to its proposed administrative resolution during its most recent meeting this week. A penalty fine was set at $500 to be paid to the commission before Oct. 2 with no additional restitution to be paid by Whitlock.

Whitlock said the then-ongoing ethics investigation did not factor into his decision to resign his position as the district’s archery director after more than a decade — during which he delivered numerous titles including seven Alabama State Championship, two National Championship and one World Championship titles — in June. That move, he said, was motivated solely by his involuntary transfer from East Elementary to the district’s in-school suspension program, Turning Point.

“My thinking is that a coach needs to be someone who is there at the school with those kids and can be available. I don’t want to hold those kids back,” Whitlock said last month.

In a statement released June 27, Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff said he had been “as surprised as anyone” by Whitlock’s resignation, but said the district was fully committed to continuing its tradition of archery excellence.

“We appreciate Branch Whitlock and what he has done for archers at East Elementary and our school system, and respect his decision to step down from his archery commitments,” Kallhoff said in the statement. “We are committed to archery and fully intend to keep our program thriving and competitive at the county, state and national level.”