HIAWASSEE, Ga. — Millions of online viewers watched a heated confrontation between a county sheriff and a local police sergeant take place in front of a motorist during a traffic stop in Georgia, 11 Alive News reported.
“You get on my traffic stop again, I will arrest you!” Hiawassee Police Sgt. Tracy James told Towns County Sheriff Ken Henderson as the two argued, threatening to arrest each other.
The animated debate drew plenty of commentary from citizens who viewed the video, which was posted to YouTube by the news outlet July 1.
According to 11 Alive News, several citizens came forward to complain about the sheriff after the video went viral.
One person who came forward is a former sheriff’s office employee who asked to remain anonymous since the individual still resides in town and fears retaliation.
“When you saw that video of the sheriff interacting with the police sergeant, did it surprise you?” a reporter for 11Alive asked the former employee.
“Honestly no,” they replied. “Because that’s just the way he is. It did not surprise me.”
The worker said the sheriff was the main reason for leaving the department. They also told the news outlet the sheriff had a rule not to speak with Hiawassee police.
“He didn’t want us socializing with them,” the person said. “If we were caught socializing with them then we’d be in trouble. … We would get, you know, we would get our butts chewed out.”
11Alive Investigates also obtained a secret recording between the sheriff and some of his employees. In the footage, the employees were having lunch with officers of the Hiawassee Police Department. The sheriff accused them of talking about him behind his back.
“I’ll run this motherf***er by myself before I’ll be disrespected by people that work for me, that work for me and disrespect me like that. I’ve never been so d*** mad in my d*** life,” he’s heard saying on the recording, according to the news outlet.
Furthermore, the sheriff is heard calling Hiawassee police his enemies about 20 minutes into the recording.
“Let me ask you, are you gonna hang out all the time with my enemies?” He went on to say, “I don’t want my people sitting with my d***** enemies.”
