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

Posted on December 05, 2002

Solicitor Applauds DUI Arrests

By Lynne Powell

Solicitor Trey Gowdy challenged law enforcement officers to petition legislators for tighter restrictions and tougher penalties for those who drive under the influence of alcohol.
Gowdy spoke at an annual luncheon Wednesday sponsored by the local Commission of Alcohol and Drug Abuse to honor those officers who made the highest number of DUI arrests this year.
The solicitor urged officers to call legislators and recommend lowering the legal level of impairment from .10 to .08 and to create a graduated penalty system based on the level of the driver's impairment. Gowdy also recommended taking a person's vehicle or primary mode of transportation instead of taking his driver's license. "When you hit them in the pocket, they'll pay attention," Gowdy said.
The solicitor, whose office is responsible for prosecuting DUI cases, said although a recent study gave South Carolina a D minus grade for DUIs, those officers who constantly make DUI arrests receive an A. "There is no doubt in my mind that a little girl who hands her father a Christmas ornament or a little boy who makes out a Christmas list wouldn't be here this season if you hadn't made that arrest," Gowdy said.
Together, the officers made 138 DUI arrests, with close to a 100 percent conviction rate, last year. In South Carolina, a person with a .10 blood alcohol content is considered impaired. According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, a person is seven times more likely to have a traffic collision when his BAC is .10 percent. If a person's BAC level is .15 percent, a person is 25 times more likely to become involved in a collision. Arresting someone suspected of driving under the influence takes a dedicated officer and a few innovative techniques. An average DUI arrest takes 1½ to two hours to process. After the arrest, the officer must schedule the trial, which is often on his day off.
"At first, it was just part of the job," Cherokee County Sheriff's Deputy Todd Parker said. "Now, I make goals for myself, and this year I met that." Parker, a second-year winner of the award, set a personal goal of 40 arrests at the beginning of the year. After he exceeded that mark in August, he wanted 10 more. In addition to making DUI arrests, deputies answer calls. It's a juggling act, but an assignment Parker said is important to do. "It could be my family or one of your family members who's killed by that drunk driver," Parker said.
Officers have found it's helpful to patrol secondary roads, watching for drivers who don't signal properly, drive without headlights at night or simply drive over the white line at a red light or stop sign.
"A lot of times, they are concentrating on the bigger picture -- getting home," Gaffney Police Officer Randy Quinn said. "Then they make the little mistakes. Your short-term motor skills go first." Quinn, also a second-year award recipient, made 16 arrests this year and boasts a 90 percent conviction rate with the other 10 percent of cases pending.
There have been five traffic fatalities in Cherokee County this year, but none DUI-related, a factor Highway Patrol officers attribute to statewide campaigns encouraging drivers not to drink and drive and to wear safety belts.
"I patrol around here, around bars, just anywhere I think a drunk driver might be," Trooper Stephen Poole said. "A drunk isn't likely to be near First Baptist Church at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning." Poole made 64 DUI arrests last year and has a 100-percent conviction rate.
A trooper normally averages 25 to 35 DUI arrests each year, Cpl. Steve Mueller said. Troopers and city law enforcement officers will begin a campaign to target drunken drivers and others who disobey traffic laws during the holiday season. "Sober or Slammer" is set to kick off this month.
Blacksburg officers Mark Gooch and Wayne Meredith have a more difficult time making arrests because there aren't any bars within the city limits. Meredith and Gooch, each prior award-winners, had three DUI arrests last year. "We really try to go the extra mile by working back roads and keeping a watchful eye on the driver," Gooch said. "Training is a lot of it, but being attentive is the most important thing."

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

December 04, 2002

School Volunteer Out of Jail

By Lynne Powell, Staff Writer

A Chesnee man was released from custody Tuesday night after posting bail. Judge Frank Crocker set a $5,000 bond for Keith Lyerly, a former Blacksburg Elementary School volunteer accused of improperly touching an 8-year-old female student.
Lyerly, 47, of 3410 Peachtree Road, had been a volunteer in his wife's classroom for two years, Blacksburg Police Chief Jamie Ham said. The girl says that Lyerly touched her private parts while inside the classroom and while other students were in the room, Ham said.
The girl alleges the incident occurred between Sept. 13 and Oct. 2, according to the warrant charging Lyerly with lewd act on a child. Lyerly denies the allegations, his attorney Bill Winter said.
Lyerly turned himself in to authorities at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Ham had contacted Winter Monday morning and told the attorney that his client had 24 hours to turn himself over to authorities.
Magistrate Scott Ramsey scheduled a bond hearing for 2:30 p.m., but the girl's mother had a doctor's appointment and wished to attend the hearing, authorities said. The hearing was then rescheduled for 6 p.m.
Lyerly posted bail through a bail bondsman, detention officers said.

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

Posted on December 02, 2002

Police Seek Suspect in Bank Robbery

By Lynne Powell, Staff Writer

Blacksburg police are searching for a man who robbed a bank Friday afternoon.
Police Chief Jamie Ham said a black male carrying a large black bag entered First National Bank of the Carolinas on Cherokee Street around 4 p.m. The man produced a handgun, handed the bag to a bank teller and demanded cash.
After receiving an undisclosed amount of money, the man left the bank. Police are unsure if the man fled on foot or in a vehicle.
"We don't think he was local," Ham said. "He made no efforts at all to disguise his face."
Ham notified the FBI, and the two agencies plan to release a photo of the suspect taken with surveillance cameras in hopes of triggering tips from the public.
Although this is the first armed robbery in the past couple of years in Blacksburg, Ham expects the number of shopliftings, larcenies and armed robberies to increase through the holidays.
"We were lucky last year," Ham said. "We didn't have any armed robberies, but our close proximity to North Carolina and the interstate makes it a prime location for those types of crimes."
The chief said he would increase patrols in areas he suspects will become targets for thieves.
Anyone with information about the bank robbery is asked to call the Blacksburg Police Department at 839-2331 or Crime Stoppers at 489-CRIME. All calls are anonymous.

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

Posted on November 05, 2002

Church Employee Accused of Theft

By: Compiled from staff reports

A former Blacksburg First Baptist Church employee was arrested last week, according to Blacksburg Police Chief Jamie Ham, and charged with breach of trust greater than $5,000.
Karen Lee Floyd, 44, of 708 W. Cherokee St., Blacksburg, was charged Thursday.
She is accused of stealing more than $6,000 after a review of payroll records, Ham said. Blacksburg police are working with the State Law Enforcement Division and with the 7th Circuit Solicitor's Office, he said.

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

Posted on October 26, 2002

Man Found Not Guilty in Murder

By Tom Langhorne

Four guys are outside a low-income Blacksburg apartment complex at about 2 a.m. on a bitter cold December morning.
It's not the typical scene for a savage murder, but prosecutors said 19-year-old Steve Lester McBeth colored the night red with James "Jaymie" Lancer Malcom Jones' blood.
Jones suffered numerous cuts, abrasions and bruises to his head, face and neck in the Dec. 8, 2000, incident. His larynx was crushed. A prosecution witness would later say that McBeth mercilessly beat Jones with his fists and the butt end of a rifle. Then-Blacksburg police chief David Gibson would call it the worst beating he had seen in 43 years of law enforcement experience.
But tough questioning by McBeth's lawyer planted seeds of doubt in jurors' minds about who actually administered the beating, and the defendant was found not guilty of murder. Assistant Solicitor Robert Bruce went to trial with an eyewitness, DNA evidence and statements that McBeth, now 21, had given to police.
Prosecution witness Jerome Ponder, one of the four men at the scene, testified that he saw McBeth beat Jones. Bruce had DNA evidence showing at least three patches of Jones' blood on McBeth's shoes. And the prosecutor had the fact that McBeth had initially lied about being present or knowing Jones.
But defense attorney Rod Tullis said after the trial that there is nothing unusual about a rattled suspect in a criminal case lying at the start of an investigation. Tullis said a grossly drug-and-alcohol-intoxicated Jones had a .22 rifle when he approached McBeth to ask for crack cocaine. Jones reached for McBeth's pocket, the defense attorney said, and at some point began to put a magazine into the rifle. Feeling threatened, McBeth hit Jones once in the back of the head with a beer bottle, which Tullis said shattered and cut McBeth's hand. "My client then got in a truck and waited for (21-year-old Daniel Mack Wentz) to get in and drive away," Tullis said. "He doesn't know whether Wentz or Ponder might have hit Mr. Jones. Wentz did move the body, but he denied that until he cut a plea bargain with the prosecutors on his own charges (in exchangefor his cooperation)," the defense lawyer said.
McBeth did have Jones' blood on his shoes, Tullis said, but it was on the back of his right shoe and underneath the shoe. He said the logical inference is that McBeth simply stepped in Jones' blood. "Wentz had the victim's blood on the toe of his left shoe, and marks on the victim's head matched Wentz's shoes, according to police," the defense attorney said. Tullis added that there were no fingerprints or blood on the butt of the rifle, even though McBeth was bleeding profusely from the beer bottle cut. "Want to know what I think? I think Ponder and Wentz had a part in this murder," Tullis said. "I think whoever committed this murder was in the courtroom."
McBeth spent nearly two years in jail waiting for his case to come to trial, but Solicitor Trey Gowdy said it wasn't because prosecutors were dragging their feet while the defendant languished behind bars. Gowdy said the case was suspended for several months because Tullis' license to practice law was suspended. McBeth also could not pay bond to get out of jail, the solicitor said.

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

Posted on October 22, 2002

Elementary School Volunteer Investigated: Parent Reports 'Inappropriate Touching' of Child

BLACKSBURG, S.C. -- A Blacksburg Elementary School volunteer has been banned from school property while police investigate reports that he inappropriately touched students at the school.
Blacksburg police are investigating a complaint about the volunteer filed by a parent in September.
Cherokee County investigators aren't releasing any details of the allegations, but they said that no charges have been filed.

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

Posted on August 30, 2002

Police Investigate Finances at Church

By: Compiled from staff and wire reports

BLACKSBURG – Blacksburg police and the State Law Enforcement Division are investigating discrepancies in Blacksburg's First Baptist Church's financial statements for a two-year period, Blacksburg Chief Jamie Ham said.
A member of the church at 121 W. Cherokee St. filed a report that launched the investigation in May, Ham said. The investigation entails reviewing a large quantity of documents from credit cards to paychecks, he said.
Ham declined to estimate how much money could be missing or inappropriately used. No arrests have been made. The investigation could take several more months, Ham said.

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

Posted on-line August 22, 2002

Young Chief Takes the Reins in His Hometown

By Julie Woodcock

Jamie Ham was born into the kind of family whose members run into burning buildings when everyone else is running out. He grew into the kind of man willing to kick in a drug dealer's door despite the guns that he knows are probably on the other side.
But he's also the kind of guy who knows everyone in town, whose easy manner invites confidences from people who might otherwise be afraid to talk to a cop. That might be why the Blacksburg Town Council voted unanimously earlier this week to make 32-year-old Ham the youngest police chief in the town's history.
He replaces David Gibson, who held the post for the past five years until resigning Thursday for health reasons. "He'd been a Blacksburg police officer for several years and assistant chief most of that time," said Mayor David Hogue. "He's taken the right kind of courses. He's also easy to talk to, whether you're a businessman or a councilman or somebody on the street."
Ham has 11 years of law enforcement experience. Besides being a distinguished graduate of the state's Criminal Justice Academy -- graduating in the top 2 percent of his class -- Ham's credentials include EMS training and certification as a structural firefighter and as an arson detective for the National Fire Academy. He also holds an associate's degree in business management from Limestone College.
But Ham really shined while working as a narcotics investigator, according to Capt. Rick Burgess, his former supervisor at the Cherokee County Metro Narcotics squad. The task force of sheriff's deputies and officers from the Gaffney and Blacksburg police departments was disbanded in 1999 because of manpower issues. "He was probably one of the best officers I've ever worked with," Burgess said. "I'd love to have a dozen more like him." Burgess said he's always been impressed with Ham's intelligence and knowledge. "When an officer had a question about the law, Jamie was the one they'd ask," he said. "He'll make a top-notch police chief."
Ham began his career in public service at age 15 when he started volunteering as a junior firefighter. It was a natural move, since firefighting is a Ham family tradition. Ham's father, Boyd Ham, is a firefighter, and his uncle, the late Laurence Ham, was chief of the CKC Volunteer Fire Department from 1978 until his death earlier this year. But while serving as a firefighter, Ham realized his future was in another career. "The fire department and police department work closely together at wreck scenes and fire scenes, and that exposure made me interested in law enforcement," he said.
Ham began that career at age 21 with the Gaffney Police Department. He worked there six years before deciding it was time to try policing in his hometown of Blacksburg. Blacksburg's population is only 2,000, 14 of them cops. But over the past five years, there have been two murders, several robberies and a bustling drug trade within the city limits.
Ham said being a hometown boy has worked to his advantage while investigating such crimes. "I was born and raised here, and I know everybody," he said. "That's a huge asset because you know their background, their families, their parents. I made a ton of cases in the Blacksburg area because I knew the people, and people trust me to provide information."
That inside knowledge was particularly handy when he worked with Metro Narcotics, he said. Ham said Metro agents served between six and 14 search warrants at the homes of suspected drug dealers each week. It wasn't easy work, he said. "It's very dangerous kicking in someone's door where there are drugs," Ham said. "Where there's dope, there's guns."
More terrifying, Ham said, are unexpected and uncontrollable situations that occur during routine police work. There was the time a man started firing at sheriff's deputies from the front porch of the man's home. Ham and another officer tried to work their way closer to determine how to deal with the situation. The man started firing toward them. "He wasn't shooting directly at us, but when a person is shooting a shotgun in your general direction, that's enough to make you sweat," Ham said. Ham said officers with the sheriff's Emergency Response Team eventually brought the situation to a peaceful resolution.
Ham served as a Blacksburg shift supervisor for two years before being promoted to assistant chief in 1999 when Gibson underwent back surgery. Now, he said, he wants to do a good job leading the department Gibson worked to build. "I just hope I can take the department forward in the same direction," Ham said.