Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Lowndes County Sheriff Chris West was slated for trial on April 10 to face charges related to a June 2024 incident. The hearing, set to begin at 9 a.m. before Judge Kameisha Logan at the Hayneville Municipal Court was postponed due to a family emergency experienced by the case prosecutor, Amardo Wesley Pitters.

According to the town’s magistrate, Tamare McCord, Logan reset the hearing for May 8 at 9 a.m.

The hearing resulted from two warrants — harassment and obstructing government operations — sworn against West by County Commissioner Robert Harris in February. In a complaint Harris filed in Hayneville on Aug. 24, 2024, the commissioner alleges the Sheriff interrupted a June 24, 2024, commission meeting and threatened commissioners with arrest. A warrant was issued for West in August and West’s most recent trial appearance is a renewed attempt by the town to prosecute the Sheriff.

On March 12, West’s attorney Richard Rice filed a motion with the Hayneville Court to dismiss the latest charges against West, who already stood trial for Harris’s Aug. 24 2024 complaint. Former Hayneville Judge Fred Bell dismissed the charge for harassment during a Nov. 13, 2024 hearing and later also dismissed the charge of obstruction in an order he issued Nov. 28, 2024.

Rice’s motion requests dismissal of the charges, citing unlawful detainment of the Sheriff, the town of Hayneville’s abuse of power and detrimental public policy, previous dismissal of the charges, the absence of witnesses for current charges, an impermissible attempt at double jeopardy, failure of the charge of harassment in meeting the legal standard under Alabama law.

Editor’s note: Requests submitted to Logan and the court for access to the latest deposition in this case have been referred back to Hayneville Police Chief Kelvin Mitchell. At press time, The Lowndes Signal’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the deposition remain unanswered.