IRON CITY, Tenn. -- A police chief in Lawrence County is off the job after the Channel 4 I-Team raised questions about his past.

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Jesse Barnett had previously been fired from one police department and forced to resign from another because of inappropriate behavior.

Even after these previous incidents, Channel 4 learned that the town of Iron City hired Barnett as their police chief without doing a background check.

For the last seven months, Barnett was essentially the law in Iron City, but he's developed a reputation around town.

"We all want to get rid of him, most of us," said Iron City resident Charles Etheredge.

"He's not qualified in my book, and the people in Iron City, the citizens, are not satisfied with him," said Iron City resident James Heatherly.

There are questions not just about how Barnett did his job, but how he got his job. How does someone who's lost two jobs in law enforcement then become the chief of another police department?

The city manager in charge of hiring Barnett in Iron City never did a background check. But if he would have, he would have found out a lot about Barnett's past.

The city manager in charge of hiring Barnett in Iron City admitted that he never did a background check.

"I've never been guilty of any kind of unethical behavior, nor will be in the future," said Barnett.

Barnett's personnel files show he was fired from the Perry County Sheriff's Department in 2006 for inappropriate behavior.

Records indicate "he confiscated beer and gave the beer to an acquaintance at a party while on duty." And during a traffic stop, "He made inappropriate comments to the female driver," the files said.

Barnett denied the allegations and said he had "no idea what they are referring to."

However, he was ultimately fired from the Perry County position.

Two years later, at the Collinwood Police Department, Barnett was accused of pulling out an improper rifle to chase a suspect into the woods and having pictures of naked pictures on his cell phone.

"We had one girl that called my investigator and said that Mr. Barnett had pictures of her on his cell phone -- inappropriate pictures of her on his cell phone," said Chief Daniel Farris of the Collinwood Police Department.

"The cell phone incident was a closed incident. Things had been forwarded to me, text messages. Things like that. Some of the other deputies at some point received all the same forwards. Statements were made about that. No disciplinary action was taken," Barnett said.

But after one phone call to his old boss in Collinwood, Channel 4 News learned that action was taken.

"I asked him to resign or be fired," said Farris. "I would not hire him back, and I would not recommend him for any other department."

Once the I-Team took its findings to the Iron City city manager, he was on the fast track to firing Barnett.

Late Friday, one day after the I-Team's questioning, Iron City city manager Jack Meigs fired Barnett, citing four different reasons in a handwritten note.

The reason included hiring four other officers without permission, three wrecks in less than six months and continuously buying things without proper authorization. Barnett had apparently bought an assault rifle for his own use and charged it to the city.