The evening of Monday, March 4, a Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office deputy went to the home of Lawton Sack and served him with a pending good behavior or “peace” warrant from the county Magistrate Court.
Bulloch County Commissioner Timmy Rushing filed the complaint against Sack, who chairs the Bulloch County Republican Party and is also an outspoken leader in a group called the Bulloch Action Coalition that has been protesting last year’s county property tax hike.
Rushing’s complaint was based on an encounter during a Bulloch County Board of Commissioners meeting a month earlier – Feb. 6. But more members of the public became aware of the continuing controversy March 5, one day after the good behavior warrant was served, when there was another Board of Commissioners meeting and Sack signed up to speak during public comments time, as he has often done before.
“Mr. Chairman, I’ve come to you this evening with a broken heart,” Sack began, addressing his remarks to Chairman Roy Thompson. “As a 47-year citizen of Bulloch County and somebody that’s known yourself my entire life, I have great concerns about the leadership in Bulloch County. … I never in my life thought I would experience the things that I’ve experienced over the last 13 months. It culminated last night with a sheriff’s deputy coming to my house at 10 o’clock at night and being served with a warrant, and being called to a hearing for using my First Amendment rights.”
Rushing had signed to take out the warrant, not immediately after the Feb. 6 encounter, but March 4, the day it was served. It alleges that “the conduct of Edward Lawton Sack justified the belief that the safety of one or more persons in the county or the peace or property of same as [sic] in danger of being injured or disturbed thereby.”
No charges filed
The warrant, or application for a warrant, does not charge him with any crime, but it could result in a court order that he keep his distance from Rushing. Magistrate Judge Lynn Sapp, who holds the position that used to be called deputy magistrate, signed that top portion of the warrant.
An “order of arrest” portion below it repeated Sack’s name, but the judge did not sign it, and Sack was not arrested. Instead, typed notations at the bottom of the warrant informed him of a 2 p.m. March 25 hearing in the Magistrate Court of Bulloch County for the good behavior/peace warrant case of Timmy Rushing vs. Edward Lawton Sack.
“Over the last 13 months, you’ve encouraged us to be a part of our local government, you’ve encouraged us to speak, you’ve encouraged us to ask questions, and I’ve continued to do that,” Sack continued in his March 5 remarks to Thompson. “You yourself have been very open. … I appreciate you being a gentleman, but I tell you when the voices of citizens for using the First Amendment rights end up with the threat of arrest, when there’s a deputy that comes to your house for speaking to a commissioner, there’s something wrong in Bulloch County.”
He said the organization he is involved with “has been kicked out of three different locations because of phone calls made by certain commissioners.”
The Bulloch Action Coalition, or BAC, previously purchased eight large signs and 500 smaller signs naming individual commissioners as responsible for the tax increase and calling on voters to oust the incumbents. Rushing is in the middle of a four-year term and so is not one of the commissioners up for election this year.
“I was told not to come to the meeting here tonight, by the deputy and by the sheriff,” Sack said. “That’s not how things operate in Bulloch County, and yet they’re being accepted. …”
“I’ve served to speak for those who were afraid to speak for themselves, and I want to tell you I’m going to continue to do it, and it doesn’t matter who tells me don’t come here anymore, to keep my seat, and even if I keep being threatened, and yes I have the audio from that meeting, and I was threatened, and I’ll play it for the magistrate judge and they’ll see that at no time did I ever raise my voice to the commissioners.”
Incident report
Sack provided a copy of a Feb. 7 Sheriff’s Office incident report about the encounter between him and Rushing at the Feb. 6 meeting. Blanks routinely filled in at the top of the report gave the incident type as “simple assault” and weapon type as “hands/fist, etc.” But again, no charge was filed, and in the incident narrative, BCSO Sgt. Jody Deal referred to Sack “entering into Mr. Rushing’s personal space” but made no mention of any physical contact and instead referred to a “verbal exchange.”
As Deal noted in his report, the encounter occurred about two hours into the Feb. 6 meeting, when the commissioners had voted to go into an “executive session,” in other words, a closed-door meeting, and the video livestreaming was turned off.
“Mr. Lawton Sack approached Mr. Timmy Rushing, walking up to the county commissioners seating area behind the desk,” Sgt. Deal wrote. “Mr. Rushing advised Mr. Lawton (Sack) that the area was off limits to him, and he was instructed to walk away and not talk to him. Mr. Rushing informed Mr. Lawton that he did not like him. …”
“During the executive session meeting of the commissioners I was informed that Mr. Lawton Sack was informing individuals that county Commissioner Timmy Rushing had threatened him,” Deal continued.
He noted that he had talked to Rushing and identified Commissioner Toby Conner as a witness, but Sack had left the area. However, Sack called Sheriff Noel Brown, who informed Sgt. Deal of this in a phone call, he noted. Sack then talked to Deal the next day at the Sheriff’s Office, and Deal wrote an “officer supplement,” noting that Sack stated that he had approached Rushing to correct him about something that was said during the meeting.
“Rushing stood up from his chair and told Mr. Lawton to leave and further stated that he would not be a commissioner forever and used the term, calling Mr. Lawton ‘boy,’ [quotation marks added here] and asking Mr. Lawton if he understood. Mr. Lawton states that Mr. Rushing was in his space and he felt threatened.”
Deputy Ryan Austin, in his officer supplement, wrote, “I observed both parties talking but nothing seemed out of sorts just a little heated.”
In a statement Sack wrote, dated Feb. 8, he stated that Rushing “balled up his fist,” said “Do you understand, boy?” and made the comment about not always being a commissioner.
The topic Sack approached Rushing about, according to both of them, was a letter Rushing had read in open session from Bryan Burke recommending Patrick Woock, Ph.D. for appointment to the Coastal Area District Development Authority, or CADDA, which Burke was leaving. The letter identified Woock as a Georgia Southern University employee. But in fact, Woock had left his job as business incubation director with the university’s Business Innovation Group in October to work for an organization in Savannah.
Right after the open meeting was adjourned for the closed session to begin, Sack walked up the ramp at the side of the commissioners’ dais and approached Rushing from the side. Another citizen, Lisha Nevil, had approached the dais at the same time.
Rushing’s account
When the Statesboro Herald reporter asked Rushing about this, Tuesday during a break in the commissioners’ pre-budgeting retreat at Paulson Stadium, the commissioner provided a re-enactment, indicating that Sack had stood very close and leaned over him, until Rushing stood up.
“I didn’t even know he was there; I can just hear somebody, and he touches my arm, grabs me by the arm, I turn around. He’s over me like this,” Rushing said. “I can’t make out what he’s saying. … I don’t even know what’s going on, he said something to the effect of, ‘I’ll have you know that man ain’t worked at Georgia Southern in four months.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’”
When Sack mentioned Woock, Rushing told him he didn’t know Woock and had only read the letter, which Sack held up to him and wouldn’t leave, Rushing said.
“He’s still right here. … And I so I stood up, like this, and I said, ‘Let me tell you, I ain’t going to be commissioner from now on,’” Rushing told the Herald, noting that it’s a fact he won’t be a commissioner forever. When Sack remained standing there, Rushing said, “I told him just what I think of him,” and told him, “Leave me alone, don’t never text me, touch me, talk to me. Don’t bother me no more.”
Rushing said he would have let it go at that, if Sack had done the same, but that Sack instead told others Rushing had threatened him and now “they won’t leave it alone; they won’t leave me alone,” and this is why he sought the good behavior warrant.
Since the Feb. meeting, “commissioners and staff only beyond this point” signs have been placed on the side ramps to the dais, and Thompson has announced a three-minute limit for the public to clear the room after a closed session is announced.
Sack said he was consulting a Savannah attorney Wednesday in preparation for the March 25 hearing.