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Who's the Anson County Sheriff? It might take a lawsuit to figure out

A sheriff and others seated in a meeting
Greg Collard
/
WFAE
Interim sheriff Scott Howell with his wife (center) and Cassandra Reid.

There’s a big question in Anson County today – who is the sheriff?

The Anson County Commission, with two outgoing members, held an emergency meeting Monday night to appoint someone to serve the term of the sheriff who died in September but was reelected in November without opposition.

But Tuesday night, the new county commission threw that appointment out and appointed a different interim sheriff to a four-year term.

Confused? County Manager Leonard Sossamon certainly is.

“I’m not sure right now — you’ll have to ask our attorney Scott Forbes, who the real sheriff of Anson County is,” Sossamon said following Tuesday’s meeting. "Because I understood before this vote that Gerald Cannon was the sheriff. But now it may be a situation, because we have competing points of view, that one sheriff may have to sue the other sheriff for the seat.”

The political saga started Sept. 21, with the death of Sheriff Landric Reid, a Democrat. His chief deputy — and good friend — Scott Howell became interim sheriff, but the county’s Democratic Party executive committee on Oct. 8 nominated Cannon, a veteran of the Wadesboro Police Department, to be awarded the general election votes that went to Reid.

However, there were several problems with how the party voted on Cannon’s nomination, and they had to basically start over. It wasn’t until this past Saturday that the local executive committee members had a nomination election.

Canon won that in a close vote, 59-54. The total does not represent the number of people who voted. It’s primarily a reflection of precinct leaders, who represent several votes as well as county Democratic elected officials.

But the local party missed its window to get Reid’s votes, awarded to Cannon because the election was already certified. The nomination was essentially a recommendation. County commissioners had the final say.

Emergency meeting

As of Saturday, Cannon had the support of the majority of commissioners. But the terms of two members expired Monday.

Gerald Cannon
Wadesboro Police Department
Gerald Cannon

Both were supporters of Cannon, including the outgoing chair. He called an emergency meeting Monday to appoint a sheriff. One commissioner, JD Bricken, posted on Facebook that he was notified by phone at about 5:15 p.m. of a meeting that was to begin at 5:30.

Forbes says he wasn’t informed of the meeting and didn’t attend. The four members who did attend unanimously appointed Cannon sheriff and had a swearing-in ceremony.

This helped set the stage for Tuesday night’s meeting, which drew a standing-room crowd of people upset with the previous appointment or anxious that a county commission with new members would reverse itself. Many people were turned away because the meeting room was at capacity.

Scott Howell
Anson County Sheriff's Office
Scott Howell

The role of race

There is a lot of racial tension in this debate. Cannon is Black and Howell is white. There are accusations that white Democrats support Howell because of his race — and that Black Democratic leaders are doing the same for Cannon. The county Democratic chair, Dannie Montgomery, is Black. She says she’s been wrongly accused of supporting Cannon because of his race.

“Some folks are like, ‘You only want a Black sheriff,’ and that’s incorrect. We want the best individual for the job,” she said Tuesday while commissioners were in closed session for 45 minutes to discuss the sheriff controversy.

Landric Reid’s widow, Cassandra, sat a few seats away from Montgomery. She was there in support of Howell. Cassandra Reid is Black and believes Howell’s race works against him with local Democratic leaders.

“My opinion, Mr. Howell’s a white man, Gerald Cannon’s a Black man, and that’s what they [local Democratic leaders] want to replace my husband with,” Reid said.

After commissioners returned from the closed session, there was a motion to appoint Howell as sheriff, effective immediately. It passed on a 4-3 vote. One of the new members supported the motion; another voted against it.

Sheriff Howell, Sheriff Cannon

After the meeting, Forbes referred to both Howell and Cannon as Sheriff Howell and Sheriff Cannon.

And there is already legal action. Cannon sued the county Tuesday afternoon. His lawsuit says that Forbes told him Monday evening that he was not the sheriff and he was not to go to the sheriff’s office on Tuesday.

Read Anson County Sheriff Lawsuit (pdf)

Cannon’s lawsuit says that Forbes told him Monday’s emergency meeting and his swearing-in were illegal. Tuesday night, Forbes did not give an opinion on the legality of the emergency meeting, saying that it’s up to the court.

Cannon’s lawsuit asks the court for a preliminary injunction to prevent the county from refusing to let him take office.

Council of Review ruling

Howell was part of a group that contested Cannon’s Oct. 8 nomination. The group filed a grievance with the North Carolina Democratic Party.

Read the Council of Review Hearing Order

The state party’s Council of Review on Nov. 3 invalidated the local executive committee’s nomination of Cannon. According to the council’s ruling, Montgomery did not give adequate notice to several members of its executive committee about its Oct. 8 meeting to nominate a sheriff’s candidate.

It also says there was improper use of proxies for members who couldn’t attend. And the ruling says that there was “uncontroverted” evidence that registered Democrats were not allowed into the meeting unless their names appeared on a list managed by Wadesboro police officers.

The Council’s ruling condemns the use of uniformed officers to restrict registered Democrats from attending meetings.

Greg Collard served as news director from 2008 to 2023. He served as WFAE's executive editor in 2023. He came to WFAE from West Virginia Public Broadcasting. In his eight years there, Greg had roles as a reporter, editor and producer. He was the executive producer of a television news magazine and news director for radio and television when he decided to head south for Charlotte.