NAACP wants sheriff investigated

Local leader upset with racial slur allegations

By Christian Giggenbach

LEWISBURG, WV — The president of the Greenbrier County chapter of the NAACP said Tuesday he was aware of allegations that racial slurs were being used by officers and that Sheriff Roger Sheppard needs to resign if the allegations are proved true by an independent investigation.

Speaking at the Tuesday’s Greenbrier County Commission meeting, Larry Baxter said a deputy previously came to his house and revealed that racial slurs were being used in front of an African-American deputy.

“I knew about this some time ago because one of the deputies came to my house and informed me that there were problems,” Baxter said while sitting just two seats away from Sheppard. “He said there were racial slurs tossed around to the African-American deputy.”

Last week, five deputies filed a formal complaint against Sheppard, claiming among other things that he allowed a high-ranking officer to use racial slurs. Only one deputy within the department, J.T. Williams, is African-American.

Baxter said he had known Sheppard for some time and that Sheppard had never displayed any tendencies towards racism.

“I have personally not known him (Sheppard) to be a bigot at first,” Baxter said. “But that’s not to say that people haven’t told me things. But he has never displayed that behavior around me.”

None of the five deputies who filed the complaint, nor any of the five deputies who filed a letter in support of the sheriff, attended the meeting. A courthouse official said the majority of the deputies were being certified to carry firearms Tuesday. The lack of such biannual certification was one of the deputies’ original complaints.

Sheppard only spoke briefly at the meeting, saying he had not yet received the complaint letter. Commissioners Lowell Rose and Brad Tuckwiller made a motion to have the sheriff respond to the allegations, which include nepotism and neglect of duties, within five days.

They also requested an investigation be conducted privately by an outside organization, but commission president Betty Crookshanks objected.

“The sheriff hasn’t even gotten the letter. Before we ask for an outside investigation, I would like for him to have this information,” Crookshanks said. “I think maybe we need to let him investigate and then find out for ourselves and let him get back to us.”

Tuckwiller called the allegations “severe” and said many of them could cause the county financial liabilities.

“Some of these allegations are severe and I’m not certain the county would be better benefited if not only the sheriff responded, but also an outside party to consider these complaints,” he said. “It appears there is a substantial split within the department and I’m not sure whether we can get all our questions answered.

“I would suggest we have an attorney with a private investigator to get some an independent investigation and see where we stand as a fiduciary risk management on part of the county to cover our liabilities.”

The commissioners then requested that Sheppard respond to the deputies’ complaints by Oct. 5.

Having the sheriff investigate himself will not produce a true picture of interdepartmental problems, Baxter said as he called for an outside investigation of the alleged wrongdoing.

“If you want the truth, then you can’t have someone investigating their own officers,” he said. “If any of these things occurred, then it’s shameful, and if racial slurs have been thrown around down there and the sheriff knew about it, then that’s disgraceful and I think there’s a thing called resignation.

“If he was aware of it and didn’t do anything about it ... I think Greenbrier County deserves better. I hope none of this is true.”

Christian Giggenbach writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.V.

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