Do Surry County deputies have conflict of interest in gun brandishing case?

Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 6 December, 2010 | David Codrea

[marktwain]

In the absence of physical evidence, the case against Paul Henick, a Virginia man accused of brandishing a firearm and obstruction of justice (reported earlier today in Gun Rights Examiner) boils down to the word of a citizen against that of Surry County Sheriff’s Department personnel.

As such, the credibility of the department in past actions becomes relevant, particularly where questions alleging outright corruption via framing/planting evidence are being considered in a $10 million lawsuit.

Bob Addison, a former business owner and unsuccessful candidate for sheriff, filed the suit against former Sheriff Harold Brown and a former deputy. A Daily Press account reports:

The suit, filed March 19 in U.S. District Court in Richmond, alleges that former Deputy William R. Brinkman — who no longer works for the Surry County Sheriff's Office — planted a packet of cocaine in Addison's soft drink cup and sprinkled drug residue on the floor during an October 2006 search of Addison's Grocery Store.

According to the suit, a deputy who accompanied Brinkman to Addison's store had searched the same area minutes earlier and didn't find any of the evidence that Brinkman did. That deputy later told another deputy that she didn't see any drugs in Addison's office that day, the suit said.

Add to this information I obtained after posting today’s earlier report alleging the deputy responding to the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry incident also works part time at the ferry as a security guard employed by Securigard, the private contractor retained by VDOT, that he is one of two deputies employed there, and that both responded to the call. My information says the guard who initiated the incident is no longer employed there, but that he “was very abrasive to the traveling public,” lending credence to Henick’s claim of wanting to complain to

[marktwain]

The new media is making it harder for "the authorities" to push their weight around.

[ClayinVA]

oh, this this one is going to turn into a field day once the State Police and the VCDL shows up. The VSP tends to take personal offence to bad cops and has hammered a few sheriff’s for corruption.