SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL (on-line version)
http://www.GoUpstate.com/
Spartanburg, South Carolina

September 12, 1995

Police Searching for 2 Suspects in Liquor Store Heist

BLACKSBURG - Police have signed warrants against two suspects in the armed robbery Monday of Hambright's Liquor Store on North Mountain Street.
Police Chief Wayne Elder said Charles "Chucky" Beam, 20, of Shelby and Otis Lee Ponder, 23, formerly of Blacksburg, are two of five suspects seen leaving the liquor store just after the 1 p.m. robbery.
Elder said the store clerks thought only four of the five men got out of the truck. One held a gun on the male clerk and threatened the female clerk with a tire tool. They took about $9,000 in cash, Elder said.
The robbery was similar to one at another liquor store in Blacksburg recently, Elder said. No arrests have been made, and investigations of the two robberies are continuing, he said.

SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL (on-line version)
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Spartanburg, South Carolina

June 28, 1995

Blacksburg Clerk Charged in Embezzling -
Blacksburg Employee Charged with Embezzling Town Money.

BLACKSBURG - A Blacksburg town employee has been charged with embezzling money from her employer. Blacksburg officials said Tuesday they expect audits to show about $300 is not accounted for. Exact totals will not be ready until the end of the week. Margaret Lipscomb, 44, of 612 S. Logan St., Gaffney, was charged Monday with one count of breach of trust with fraudulent intent in a warrant signed by the State Law Enforcement Division.
Blacksburg Police Chief Wayne Elder said he was told last week that money collected from customers of the town's water, sewer and gas services was missing.
Lipscomb, who resigned Thursday, was responsible for accepting the payments from customers.
Clerk Dell Bagwell said an investigation into the utility payments began after town personnel discovered cut-off notices for customers they had personally seen paying their bills. No service to town customers has been interrupted, and the payments have been restored, Bagwell said.
"SLED is completing its investigation, and we will know tomorrow how much money is missing. The year-end audit went through March 31. Town employees have been auditing receipts dated since April 1," Bagwell said.
Lipscomb worked as an office clerk for the town since last October and sometime before that, she had worked as a police dispatcher for about four years.
Elder said SLED was called in as the proper investigating authority because town money was involved. Lipscomb was booked at the county jail and released on bond.

SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL (on-line version)
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Spartanburg, South Carolina

June 15, 1995

Blacksburg Outlaws Loud Noises, OKs Party Permit; Blacksburg Council Amends Noise Ordinance and Approves Noise Permits for Outdoor Parties.

BLACKSBURG - The Town Council voted to outlaw loud noises 24 hours a day in Blacksburg, and then followed the action by approving an outdoor party that will include a live band. Mayor David Hogue said officials changed the noise law because residents complained that disturbances should be monitored 24 hours a day.
The old law called for quiet from 11:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. Now folks will need a permit to make noise. Those violating the new law could be fined up to $200. Hogue said the noise permit is necessary for outdoor activities that include live bands. "We tell people who get a permit for parties that if they are advised by police to turn the music down, they must abide," he said. The council agreed that any outdoor music should end by midnight.
Town Clerk Dell Bagwell told council members that a resident applied for a permit before officials held first reading on the noise ordinance change last week. "The resident has made plans for the party, booked a band, and I feel we should accommodate her," Bagwell said. "Besides, she has invited her neighbors, so that should cut down on complaints."
In other matters, the council: Approved a street dance permit for Aug. 3 in the First Union Bank parking lot as a part of a weekend rodeo festival.
Agreed to study the possibility of imposing a tax on any property owner who does not cut down tall weeds and remove junk cars. If city employees cut weeds or move junk cars, officials would bill offenders at a rate of $30 an hour. After the property owner is notified and does not clean up the lot, the town would provide the service and add the cost to the resident's tax bill.

SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL (on-line version)
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Spartanburg, South Carolina

May 05, 1995

Two Motorcyclists Hurt in Blacksburg

Two people were injured Thursday night when their motorcycle flipped several times in Blacksburg.
Driver Tommy Abston, 21, of Altamonte Springs, Fla., and passenger Mary Leigh Hardison, 25, of Duncan were being evaluated at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center Thursday night. They were riding west on West Lime Street in Blacksburg when the accident happened about 8:15 p.m., said Blacksburg Assistant Police Chief Don Chadwick.
Abston was just west of Park Street and was traveling at a high rate of speed when he went off the right side of the road and lost control of the motorcycle, Chadwick said. He skidded back across the road, and the bike flipped several times coming to rest in someone's yard. Abston and Hardison landed several feet away.

SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL (on-line version)
http://www.GoUpstate.com/
Spartanburg, South Carolina

January 29, 1995

Blacksburg Man Accused of Shooting Son with Rifle

A father was denied bond Saturday after he was charged with shooting his son with a hunting rifle following a Friday argument. Lewis Sutson, 50, of 605 Seven Springs St., Blacksburg, is charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, a Cherokee County Jail official said.
He is accused of shooting his son with a 30/30 carbine rifle at 9 p.m. Friday. When authorities found Wendell Sutson, 28, he was lying on the kitchen floor of his home at 303 W. Clairborne St. He was in serious condition at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center Saturday night, a hospital official said.
Police arrested the elder Sutson at his house shortly after the incident. "He was standing in the yard waiting on me," Blacksburg Police Chief Wayne Elder said. "When I walked up he said, `I've been waiting on you, chief."
Lewis Sutson gave Elder the rifle with the spent round still in the chamber, the police chief said. The father told police that his son had "dogged" him in a fight that evening and so he "took him out," Elder said. The two have had an ongoing conflict that flared up occassionaly.
On Friday, Elder responded to two calls at the son's house before the shooting. Police first were called in about 8:05 p.m. The son met Elder in the yard and said he had been in a struggle with his father. The father was not at the house. When the son had calmed down, Elder said he left to answer another call.
About 8:30 p.m., Elder was called back to the son's house. The son said his father had threatened him over the telephone. Elder said he then went over to the father's house to calm things down. As he got there, a police dispatcher told him a shooting had occurred at the son's house. When Elder arrived at the son's house for the third time Friday, he said he found glass in the street and a shattered storm door. Wendell Sutson's mother, Tex Sutson, opened the door. "When she did I found the blood in the front part of the house," Elder said.
Lewis Sutson is accused of pulling his pickup truck outside the house and firing the rifle while seated in the truck. The bullet traveled about 47 feet through the passenger window and the storm door before hitting Wendell Sutson in the upper right side of his chest.

SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL (on-line version)
http://www.GoUpstate.com/
Spartanburg, South Carolina

January 29, 1995

Small Fire Damages Police Department

A small fire broke out in the bathroom of the Blacksburg Police Department late Friday night. The fire started in the exhaust fan in the bathroom about 11:55 p. m. while Police Chief Wayne Elder was working on a shooting case that happened earlier in the evening. The fire burned the ceiling but damage was minimal.