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Lowndes County Sheriff Chris West was booked on charges Thursday after District 1 County Commissioner Robert Harris signed a warrant last week for his arrest.

West turned himself in at the John Hulett Detention Center Aug. 29 after learning of the warrant. Charges filed Harris claimed the Sheriff guilty of misdemeanor charges for harassment and obstructing government operations.

“The Sheriff turned himself in at the jail,” said Hayneville Police Chief Kelvin Mitchell. “I came down to execute the warrant.”

West declined to comment on the arrest. Mitchell said the Sheriff was processed in the same manner as anyone else booked on misdemeanor charges.

The arrest resulted from a June 24 altercation between West and Harris at a County Commission meeting, when the two exchanged words over relocating the Sheriff’s investigators to the former Hayneville Town Hall. Harris alleged the Sheriff threatened commissioners and at the Commission’s July 8 meeting, Harris requested the commission to act, calling for a vote to approve West’s arrest.

The commission took no action on July 8, but after an executive session during the groups’ July 22 meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 to bring charges against the Sheriff and in a second motion, voted to recommend West attend anger management classes. Commissioners Dickson Farrior and Joseph Barganier voted against both motions, but the measures passed when Commissioners Harris, Joshua Simmons and Charlie King, Jr. voted yes.

“As the commissioners voted, West was interfering with governmental business and harassing county commissioners, keeping them from doing their legal duties,” Harris said. “To threaten another elected official, and [West] is a peacemaker for the county… creating that type of environment, [he] is supposed to escalate, not escalate but he wasn’t able to do that.” 

Farrior said the arrest was a sad day for Lowndes County and not an event that benefitted area citizens.

“This just shouldn’t happen,” Farrior said. “We need to be better officials, better leaders than this. I think the Sheriff was provoked; he was backed into a corner. Our leaders need to work harder not to have these kinds of disagreements.”