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o 04 ^3* ■'3- O 04 CM GO Vol. 143, No. 25 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830 Established in 1882 Wednesday, August 9, 2023 - $1.00 Sheriff faces sexual harassment claims SHELLIE SMITLEY thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com ROY F. CHALKER JR. rchalker@bellsouth.net A July 25 letter addressed to County Manager Merv Waldrop and Human Resource Director Renee Milligan indicates that a former Burke County Sheriff’s employee has retained an Atlanta law firm to represent her on accusations that she was sexually harassed by Sheriff Alfonzo Williams. The letter, signed by attorney Job Milfort of the Prioleau & Milfort law firm, gave the Burke County Sher iff’s Office’s attorney until August 1, 2023, to discuss the matter and ex plore the possibility of resolving the potential claims prior to litigation. The letter states the female em ployee was hired as a dispatcher in August 2018. After excelling in that role, she became a human resource generalist in December 2020, work ing directly under Sheriff Williams in the executive wing of the Sheriff’s Office. After rebuffing his advances, the female employee was reassigned to a sexual offender registration compliance officer position, which she held from August 2021 to Au gust 2022. In August 2022, Sheriff Williams reassigned her to a grant writer’s position, where she again worked directly under the Sheriff. “It is during this time that Sheriff Williams continued to create a hos tile work environment, plagued with sexual advances and other intimi dation tactics towards (the female employee),” the letter states. “Sheriff Williams’ conduct caused (her) to become ill, requiring her to take time off from work. In fact, two of (her) medical providers confirmed that her illness was a direct result of the undue stress and pressure at work.” Because she needed to remain employed, the female employee re quested a transfer to a position that did not involve working directly with the Sheriff. That transfer occurred in April 2023 when she became a corrections officer in the detention center. She held that position until Sheriff Williams terminated her on May 8,2023. A May 3, 2023 email sent from Sheriff Williams to the female em ployee shows he gave her a “direct order” that she was to report to work the next day at 5:45 a.m. to recreate the order book the BCSO needed to operate. Williams stated that if the project was not completed by 5:45 p.m. that day, she would be terminated. Beginning in 2020 when she started working directly under the Sheriff, and continuing through her discharge on May 8, 2023, Sheriff Williams repeatedly made unwanted, highly offensive sexual advances towards her, including, among other things, asking her on numerous occa sions to “let him taste her” and “suck on her toes;” expressing a desire to ejaculate on her, multiple requests for her to “give him some loving,” according to the letter. The law firm also provided a screen shot of a text from the sheriff to the employee which stated, “Bring my p***y to Alabama.” Facebook posts SEE SEXUAL HARRASSMENT, 12 Burke County Bears Football kicked of the 2023 season with a 7 p.m. scrimmage with the Laney Wildcats in the Bear Den last Friday. The Bears outscored the Wildcats 27-8. The Bears will face rival Thomson Bulldogs on Friday, August 18th at home at 7:30 p.m. Trash pick up to begin sooner than projected SHELLIE SMITLEY thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com Ryland Environmental Managing Partner James Lanier said curbside pickup in the county is likely to begin sooner than the estimated January 2024 startup date. Lanier said his company intends to implement curbside trash service October 1, depending on poly cart delivery. However, he expects to begin receiving the carts August 14. “We have a plan to go to each com munity that wants to host a public meeting,” Lanier said. “When they express an interest in having a meet ing in an area, we facilitate it.” An informational meeting will be held at the Midville Community House, September 12 at 6:30 p.m. Lanier will explain how the curb- side system will work and provide a timeline for poly cart delivery. He will also answer residents’ questions. Any community who is interested in hosting a meeting should contact County Manager Merv Waldrop. Keysville releases 2018 and 2019 audits SHELLIE SMITLEY thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com The City of Keysville released copies of their 2018 and 2019 fi nancial “audits” to The True Citizen last week. However, because the city’s ex penditures are less than $550,000 per year, they are not required to have audits conducted, but rather agreed upon procedure engagements instead. An Agreed Upon Procedure En gagement is a financial analysis that only a CPA firm can complete. Barmore Hammond, LLC’s Ending for both years pointed out Keysville submitted the necessary documents for the procedure or the SPLOST schedule on time. Also, manage ment did not maintain appropriate documentation for all disbursements including transfers between bank accounts pertaining to SPLOST IV funds. It is impossible to decipher how Keysville spent American Rescue Funds and SPLOST IV funding based on only the two sets of com pleted documents. However, the completed records show the city did not spend any of the approximately $55,800 in SPLOST IV funding received in 2018 and it was still in the bank at the start of 2019. In 2019, Keysville received another $111,847. The city spent $19,911 of SPLOST IV funds on water and sewer, $3,298 on the city hall and $85,628 on parks and recre- KEYSVILLE, ation, leaving $58,810 5 Do mental health crises call for SWAT teams? SHELLIE SMITLEY thetruecitizen.shellie@gmail.com Recently, the Burke County Sher iffs Office Special Response Team (SRT) failed to defuse an incident involving a threat of self-harm. The SRT was also recently deployed to arrest a 62-year- old man wanted for possession of child pornography and in response to a homeowner’s suspicions that a stranger was in her house after a fan and a pet moved the curtains. The SRT was formed by Sheriff Alfonzo Williams soon after he took office in 2017. Examples of calls the SRT could respond to include hos tage incidents, barricaded suspects, service of high-risk arrest/search warrants, manhunt operations and any other critical incident requiring a tactical response, according to the BCSO website. During a recent annual Daigle Law Group Use of Force Summit in Connecticut, a discussion included whether SWAT and SRTs can effec tively serve a purpose at an incident involving a non-criminal barricaded subject suffering from mental illness. SWAT and SRT officers from agencies that employed less than 100 personnel argued the agencies did not have the services in-house to practically, and more importantly, successfully deal with an incident where a non-criminal suspect had barricaded himself in a residence and was refusing to come out. Columbia County Sheriff Clay Whittle said there are no concrete criteria that dictate when an SRT team should be deployed. The deci sion to use the SRT is a judgment call based on the specifics of each incident. “There are some situa- tions that are going to be the norm to call the SRT, such as a hostage situa- 6 The BCSO SRT was deployed to make an arrest of a 62-year-old man July 21.