Last year, 10 Alabama sheriffs lost their reelection campaigns. Afterward, nine of them took steps that their successors say negatively affected their ability to perform their new jobs.
Some of the new sheriffs, who took office on Jan. 14, accused their predecessors of pocketing sheriff’s office funds or purchasing thousands of dollars of items the new sheriffs described as wasteful or unnecessary. Other outgoing sheriffs took steps that their successors described as petty, like refusing to communicate for months and purchasing promotional items with their name printed on them on their way out the door. The now-former sheriffs generally disputed these accusations.
Below is a breakdown of some of the allegations made by each new sheriff in interviews with AL.com and ProPublica as part of a yearlong investigation into Alabama sheriffs:
Outgoing sheriff: Leroy Upshaw
Incoming sheriff: Tyrone Smith
Election defeat: Primary
Years in office: 12
Communication after the defeat: Smith said he and Upshaw did not speak for “over a year” until the day before the new sheriff took office.
Outgoing sheriff: Kenny Harden
Incoming sheriff: Danny Bond
Election defeat: Primary
Years in office: 12
Communication after the defeat: Bond says he and Harden did not speak between the June primary and the day before the new sheriff took office.
Outgoing sheriff: Dennis Meeks
Incoming sheriff: Blake Turman
Election defeat: Runoff
Years in office: 12
Response: Meeks said that he purchased the promotional items with office funds and left them behind in the sheriff’s office. He said he bought similar items to distribute at the county fair every year he was sheriff but he was unable to attend the most recent one. Meeks said Turman did not contact him after the election. “They have not called me about anything,” Meeks said.
Asked about the discretionary funds Turman said were missing, Meeks called his successor a liar. “Every bit of that money is in that account. … I could’ve spent every bit of [the discretionary money] if I wanted to, because I was the sheriff, but I didn’t,” Meeks said. “Until Jan. 14, I was still sheriff and I still had to operate the sheriff’s office and had to spend money. I couldn’t wait for his little butt to get there.”
Outgoing sheriff: Mickey Powell
Incoming sheriff: Terry Mears
Election defeat: Primary
Years in office: 4
Communication after the defeat: Mears said he was given 1 ½ hours worth of transitional assistance the day before he took office.
Outgoing sheriff: Todd Entrekin
Incoming sheriff: Jonathon Horton
Election defeat: Primary
Years in office: 12
Response: Entrekin did not respond to requests for comment. Donald Rhea, an attorney for Entrekin, did not respond to questions about the money the records show he kept. Rhea emailed the following statement: “On the night of the election, Sheriff Entrekin was with District Attorney Jody Willoughby. Sheriff Entrekin called Sheriff-elect Horton, congratulated him and offered to meet with him to discuss the transition that would take place. There was no additional contact between Sheriff Entrekin and Sheriff-elect Horton until October 12, 2018. At that time, Sheriff Entrekin again called Sheriff-elect Horton and offered to meet with him to discuss the transition. No meeting ever occurred.”
Last year, Entrekin said publicly that he had a legal right to leftover jail food funds under a Depression-era law. The state Legislature has since passed a law prohibiting sheriffs from keeping funds allocated to feed state inmates that they didn’t use for that purpose. But lawyers and law professors have said that Entrekin likely ran afoul of federal law by also keeping federal jail food money, as AL.com reported in December. Entrekin said in July that the federal government was investigating his handling of inmate-feeding funds. No charges have been filed in that investigation, and Rhea denied any misconduct at the time.
“He stands ready to cooperate fully and completely in the investigation that, hopefully, will begin immediately,” Rhea said in a July statement. “That is what innocent people do.”
Outgoing sheriff: Rodney Ingle
Incoming sheriff: Byron Yerby
Election defeat: General
Years in office: 12
Communication after the defeat: Yerby said he wasn’t allowed to enter the sheriff’s office until 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 14.
Outgoing sheriff: Mike Hale
Incoming sheriff: Mark Pettway
Election defeat: General
Years in office: 16
Outgoing sheriff: Gene Mitchell
Incoming sheriff: Max Sanders
Election defeat: General
Years in office: 12
Outgoing sheriff: J. Scott Walls
Incoming sheriff: Phil Sims
Election defeat: Primary
Years in office: 12
Outgoing sheriff: Jim Underwood
Incoming sheriff: Nick Smith
Election defeat: Runoff
Years in office: 4
Communication after the defeat: Smith said he was not allowed to enter the Walker County Sheriff’s Office until two days before he took office.
