CONVICTED SHERIFF IS TIRED OF WAITING TO FIND OUT WHAT HIS SENTENCE IS

Mountain County Officials May Try To Curb The Influence

NEWLAND -- Nearly 10 months after he was convicted of extortion and
civil-rights violations, former sheriff Richard Buchanan of Avery County is
still awaiting sentencing.

He is living in Crossnore and dealing with heart problems, financial
problems and boredom as he waits for federal probation officers to finish
gathering information for a judge to consider when handing down a sentence.

Buchanan could get as much as 20 years in prison for the extortion
conviction and a year for the civil-rights violation.

Though presentencing reports are usually finished within six or seven
months, they can and have taken longer than the 10 months Buchanan has
waited, officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte said.

That isn't what Buchanan wants to hear.

He said that although he's scared about the prospect of going to prison, he
would rather face his fate than have it hanging over his head.

"I want them to do whatever they're going to do. This waiting around is
killing me," Buchanan said. "I don't know what to do or when to do it,
because I don't know what they're going to do. This waiting around is worse
than being in prison."

Waiting for the sentencing has been tough on the citizens of Avery County
as well. Buchanan's story has forced officials and residents alike to
rethink their views of the sheriff's office. As in many rural counties, the
role of sheriff carries with it a coveted larger-than-life quality. It also
carries tangible power, in the form of jobs and influence that allows the
officeholder to share with patrons and supporters.

At one time, the sheriff was - in essence - the entire judicial system in
some rural counties, Superior Court Judge Julius Rousseau said during the
hearing to remove Buchanan from office in April 2000.

"Things change, people change and the law changes ... Avery County is going
to have to change a little, too," Rousseau said.

If the number of phone calls Buchanan still receives from well-wishers is
any indication, this change is going to take place slowly. Some residents
refuse to make him a pariah and still believe - as Buchanan has maintained
all along - that political infighting between the sheriff and county
commissioners is a root cause of his troubles.

"My phone constantly stays busy," Buchanan said. "I still get lots of calls
from people telling me they don't believe the garbage that's been said
about me for a minute.... It's good to know that people in the county still
support me."

For current Sheriff Ed Gwyn, who is serving out the rest of Buchanan's
term, the county's political heritage is something of an albatross. Trying
to avoid being pulled under by the strong political undertow has always
been "the toughest part of the job," he said.

"I just try to do my job and stay out of that part of it," Gwyn said.
"Sometimes it's hard."

A Rural County

Buchanan, a former mayor and chief of police in Newland, was elected
sheriff in 1998.

Avery County sits nestled deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Tennessee
border. It was formed in 1911 from Caldwell, Mitchell and Watauga counties
and was named in honor of Col. Waightstill Avery, a Revolutionary War
soldier and former state attorney general. Burley tobacco and Christmas
trees are top crops. Tourists flock to its small towns each fall to check
out the colorful changing leaves; in the winter, they come to buy Christmas
trees and ski.

Buchanan's troubles began in earnest with the arrest of Danny Shane
Pritchard on May 16, 1999. Pritchard was stopped after leading deputies on
a chase. He was handcuffed and put in a patrol car. Buchanan was accused of
pulling him from the back of the car, slamming him face down on the hood
and kicking him in the torso.

"I probably should have just left him alone because I was angry," Buchanan
said. "He did spit on me and kick me and elbow me, but if I had let the
boys handle it there probably wouldn't have been a problem. I probably put
him on the hood a little too hard, but it's a felony to spit in an
officer's face."

Two months later, on July 16, deputies stopped a car occupied by Ward
Courtney Tingley and Christian Marvin Olson, both from the Seattle area, at
a roadblock near the Tennessee border.

When deputies searched their car, they found several items, including a
large sum of cash, a gun, a bag of marijuana and what investigators thought
were hallucinogenic mushrooms. Tests later showed that they were dried
bananas. Olson was charged with driving while impaired.

He and Tingley were also arrested on possession charges. Though the two men
said that they had more than $8,000 in cash when arrested, sheriff's
officials reported that only about $6,200 had been seized.

Tingley and Olson were sentenced to time served and released after
contributing $4,000 to the sheriff's drug fund and pleading guilty to
misdemeanor possession of marijuana. They later testified that Buchanan
told them that if they didn't make a "voluntary" contribution to the drug
fund, he would see that they remained in jail until their court date in
September.

"They weren't forced; they had a choice," Buchanan said. "They could have
gone to court. Yes, they might have had to wait a month or so but look at
me. I've been waiting 10 months and I haven't been sentenced."

In the fall of 1999, county commissioners questioned Buchanan about the way
he handled his office's finances, particularly the establishment of the
drug fund, which had been set up independent of county financial officials.
The matter was referred to District Attorney Tom Rusher, who called in
agents with the State Bureau of Investigation. Buchanan was arrested Feb.
3, 2000, on state assault and embezzlement charges. The charges were
eventually moved to federal court.

Nearly a year after his conviction, Buchanan continues to maintain his
innocence. He blames a former chief deputy, Chris Cornett, for mishandling
money seized during drug arrests.

"I didn't steal. Others did. I just didn't pay enough attention," Buchanan
said.

Cornett eventually pleaded guilty in June 2000 to state charges of trying
to buy the office of sheriff and obstructing justice by lying to
investigators. He was sentenced to unsupervised probation and community
service. Cornett was ordered to surrender his North Carolina
law-enforcement certificate.

Cornett has since moved out of the state. Buchanan also attributes part of
his downfall to a vendetta by the Avery County Board of Commissioners
because, he said, he wouldn't let them control his office.

"Basically, this all boiled down to politics," he said. "They wanted me out
so they forced me out."

Not the First

Buchanan was not the first lawman in Avery County to face criminal charges.
Former Sheriff Clinton Phillips and Mike Ellenburg, one of Buchanan's
former chief deputies, also had their days in court.

Phillips, who was sheriff from 1982 to 1990, was charged with willful
failure to discharge the duties of sheriff and embezzlement by a public
official in connection with the mishandling of $13,490 seized in a 1989
drug investigation. Prosecutors dropped both charges after Phillips signed
a statement admitting wrongdoing. He also agreed to pay back $9,172 that
couldn't be accounted for and perform 150 hours of community service.

Ellenburg, who was elevated to acting sheriff after Buchanan was removed
from office, had been charged with 12 counts of embezzlement in 1987. As
part of a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped those charges after Ellenburg
pleaded guilty to conversion of property by a bailee, a misdemeanor. He
received a two-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $4,500 in
restitution.

The history of top law-enforcement officers walking on the wrong side of
the law has embarrassed many of the county's citizens.

"We had one sheriff (Buchanan) under indictment and the interim sheriff
(Ellenburg) had once been convicted of embezzlement, and here we were
trying to bring in another sheriff (Phillips) who had been convicted of
wrongdoing," said Robert "Nub" Taylor, the county clerk of court. "I want
to remind people of that."

Moving on

Local officials also want Buchanan to be sentenced soon so they can put the
incident behind them.

"It's been like a cloud hanging over us," said the county manager, Don
Baker. "This gave us a public black eye that was exposed statewide. Anytime
you have an incident like this it's topical and newsworthy. The media's
going to put you under a microscope."

After the matter of appointing a new sheriff to replace Buchanan was put to
rest in May 2000, Gwyn and the commissioners immediately began working to
restore public confidence in the sheriff's office.

Baker credited Gwyn with meeting the board more than halfway in the effort
to reform the office.

"Ed has been very cooperative with budget and policy matters," Baker said.
"He and his staff have made a concerted effort to work with the county
administration."

Gwyn in turn has credited the commissioners with approving four new
positions within his department and raising salaries - in part to help
attract qualified applicants who may harbor lingering doubts about working
in Avery County.

"Because of all the negative publicity, people didn't want to work here,"
Gwyn said. "That took a while to overcome but now I feel like we've got the
good people we need to do the job."

Gwyn has also had to contend with the public perception of how the sheriff
should handle the job.

"We got some people here who feel that if somebody who's breaking the law
gets abused a little when they're arrested that there's nothing wrong with
that," Gwyn said. "Some people feel like they've got it coming. But as a
law-enforcement officer, you don't rough anyone up if you can help it and
you don't take bribes. That's what you agree to when you're sworn in.
That's why you take an oath."

So far, so good, some say. Taylor, the county clerk of court, praised Gwyn
for running an honest office. He also said that with the election of the
current board of commissioners in the fall of 2000, all aspects of county
government appear to be moving in the right direction.

"This situation has been painful but it has also been necessary because it
has helped get rid of some people who needed to be weeded out," Taylor
said. "The good-old-boy days are gone. The county is no longer run by the
good old boys but by the will of the people."

History of Power

Since Colonial days, sheriffs have wielded enormous power.

And with its role clearly defined in state laws and constitutions, the
office of sheriff continues to be a powerful one, especially in the rural
South.

"There are lots of people who want to be his friend," said Harry Watson,
the director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It also a political job that
can influence hiring decisions in other realms of government, such as the
school system. For this reason, holding the sheriff's office has long been
a coveted political prize for both parties in the North Carolina mountains
for quite some time."

In regions such as the Northeast, counties are not the important political
jurisdictions that they are in the South because towns and townships tend
to dominate the local landscape, Watson said. In the towns, the chief of
police is an appointed position, and officers are town employees not
subject to the whims inherent in a patronage system.

As a result, powerful sheriffs are more of a rural phenomenon, Watson said.
Because the South has, until recently, been largely rural, the idea of a
strong sheriff has taken hold in the Southern psyche.

To prevent any backsliding, Avery County officials should consider limiting
the hiring and firing powers of the sheriff, said Baker, the county manager.

"I strongly favor a system where once a sheriff is elected, the only option
he has is to hire his chief administrators," he said. Baker reasons that if
other employees in the department could be fired only for cause, it would
eliminate the need for a deputy to ignore misdeeds for fear of being fired.
Professional standards would become stronger because turnover with each new
sheriff could be minimized.

Still, selling any reforms in a county grown accustomed to political
patronage will be difficult.

"It's a good idea, but we would get a lot of flack if we tried to implement
it," Baker said. "The old political monster would raise its head. When a
new sheriff is elected, they want to be able to hire and fire people at
will. They would feel that if they had to keep somebody on, that person
wouldn't be loyal to them. But I believe that people command loyalty, they
don't demand it .... You're in a weakened position if you have to demand
it. A good leader can command loyalty."

That Buchanan continues to deny responsibility and maintain his innocence
despite the convictions has led Baker to conclude that the former sheriff
will never come to terms with his mistakes.

"He'll go to his grave in denial," Baker said. "It's sad."

- -Jim Sparks can be reached in Wilkesboro at (336) 667-5691 or at
jsparks@wsjournal.com