“…I believe that I, as elected, am sovereign to and independent from county council…”
Thus spake Christopher.
In the never ending battle to see who has the bigger penis, Sussex County Sheriff and would be super cop Jeff Christopher has told County Council to bugger off. In a long rambling response to County Administrator David Baker’s October 31 memo, Christopher said that he would ignore the memo and continue to make traffic stops and execute criminal warrants.
Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher said Friday that he and his deputies will continue executing arrest warrants and pulling over dangerous drivers, in defiance of orders from the county administrator, even as state lawmakers from his own party warn that he’s on the wrong track.
“I would characterize their actions as overstepping their authority with regard to telling me I can’t do this or I can’t do that,” Christopher said. “There is no law that exists in the state of Delaware that supersedes the authority of the sheriff as it was originally intended.”
What Barney Fife fails to understand is that unless a law has been ruled as unconstitutional, then it must be followed, no matter what he may think the state constitution says. But as we all know, teabaggers don’t believed in the law.
But the issues here seem to go beyond what Christopher believes he has the power to do. It seems that he has a giant chip on his shoulder because county GOP officials didn’t embrace his candidacy last year.
Christopher said he’s not surprised the county has acted to shut down his initiatives, saying some county leaders resisted his running for the office from the start and treated him like an “outsider” because he was the second-in-command under former Sheriff Robert Reed. Reed had sparked similar confrontations over the authority of the sheriff.
“Whenever I attempted to promote myself, I was met with great resistance then from those already in county office, as no one wanted to speak to me about running for office or advise as to where to go about attending important meetings. I had to go back to Maryland to seek advice about how to campaign. This was unbelievable to me. I saw the “good ol boys” sticking together here with the “speak to the hand” attitude. Though I was willing to talk to county council members with an open mind, I was treated as an outsider and told that I was taboo because I once worked for Sheriff Robert Reed.”
So now we know the real reason behind Jeff’s shenanigans. This isn’t about assisting police departments in the county, it’s all sour grapes over how he was treated when he announced his candidacy last year. Hey Jeff, let me call you a wahbulance.
The memo from the County Administrator is quite clear. Not only are Christopher’s actions illegal, but they put the county in a precarious position over liability for his actions. Christopher denies that his deputies are making traffic stops, however, on September 30, his chief deputy, Dennis Lineweaver, pulled over a DOC guard (someone who has arrest powers) and issued him a ticket. This guard is also a member of the Georgetown VFD, and he filed a complaint with the county.
Even though Pete Schwartzkopf has said that it will be up to GOP members of the county’s delegation to the Legislature to take action, I ask him to reconsider. Pete, this guy is out of control and someone is going to get seriously hurt. It might be a member of the public or one of Jeff’s deputies. You cannot turn a blind eye to this. You need to start the ball rolling to remove this loose cannon from office.
And Mr. Baker, you need to make good on your memo and fire any sheriff’s department employee who continues to follow illegal orders from Christopher.
Enough is enough!