On Tuesday, July 29, 2025, Mid Bay News reported that every judge in Okaloosa County has recused themselves from the case involving Nolan Weeks, a former Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office sergeant and jail director. Weeks faces charges of impersonating a law enforcement officer.
The charge originates from a traffic stop conducted by a Shalimar police officer, who pulled Weeks over for allegedly failing to yield to a funeral procession. The police officer who made the stop did not arrest Weeks during the incident.
According to the Shalimar Police Department’s arrest affidavit, Weeks displayed a badge the following day that resembled those used by active Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputies. The affidavit claims Weeks presented himself as an active-duty officer during the interaction. However, a court filing by Weeks’s attorney asserts the badge clearly indicated his status as a retired law enforcement officer.
Court documents do not specify the reasons for the recusal of all Okaloosa County judges, but the decision has led to the case being moved to another jurisdiction.
Weeks, who served as a sheriff’s deputy in Okaloosa County over two periods in the past two decades, was appointed jail operations manager in 2023 by the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners. He later became jail director following the resignation of his predecessor, Eric Esmond, under unclear circumstances.
Weeks stepped down from his role in November 2024 after a county investigation examined his connection to HealthCred Care, a company owned by his brother. The company enrolls inmates in healthcare plans to reduce county liability for substantial medical expenses, a response to costly inmate healthcare issues Okaloosa County faced in the 2010s, where unpaid medical bills reached hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Source: Mid Bay News
