20 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: MAY 2017 T hey say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But in Georgia it’s the guy that lost a recent race for sheriff that seems furious. Mark LaJoye ran and lost the race for Muscogee County sher- iff, and now he’s saying that there were promises made that are not being kept. He’s talking about the person that won the election – Sheriff Donna Tompkins. And yes, this all played out on Facebook – obviously. The beef’s pretty cut and Facebook is fave place to go to war If you’re pissed off and extremely emotional, social media is irresistible dry. LaJoye says Tompkins promised him a job in the agency if he would endorse her for the office. LaJoye was the Republi- can nominee for sheriff in 2016 and Tompkins was the Democratic Party choice. They were running against incumbent Sheriff John Darr. Tompkins finished first in the general election but had to get past Darr in a runoff, while LaJoye came in third. LaJoye endorsed Tompkins in the runoff and she then beat Darr. It was close. The margin was 417 votes. LaJoye later claimed in a Facebook exchange that he was responsible for deliver- ing 462 votes to Tompkins. He claims he did this based on promises of a job in Tompkins administration. LaJoye’s comments came after a post that Tompkins put on her Facebook page in which she said she’d been given a leadership award by members of the state House of Representatives. LaJoye hit the comment section and shortly thereaf- ter there was a war of words between the sheriff, the can- didate and their respective supporters. As is always the case with Facebook drama, it reads like petty squabbling. LaJoye commented: “That’s an interesting award for a Sheriff you couldn’t even keep her cam- paign promise to me!” Tompkins responded, “That’s an interesting com- ment from a former candi- date that failed to APPLY for a job.” Tompkins then stopped posting but some of her supporters engaged LaJoye in the comments. LaJoye responded to one: “We had a deal and you [Tompkins] backed out of the original plan. As Sheriff you could have went to the City Council and got me put into any position you wanted too, but did not but you get approval for Joel McCray, Regina Millrons and Ezell you could have done the same for me! you can not be trusted and your employees no it now. “Voters have short memo- ries but I must remind you that you would have never won that race without me and the stats prove it. 2020 is just around the corner and expect I will run against you!” Another commenter thought LaJoye was being unprofessional. LaJoye responded with: “I have no beef with you … but I tried to do this as professionally as possible from behind the scenes but Sheriff Tompkins went back on her original plan, but she went above and beyond to get some her old Ralph Johson buddies re-hired and forgot who got her elected to begin with.” Editor’s note: Typos/errors in LaJoye’s Facebook comments were left as is. Dammit Jeff, Dammit Jeff, that’s that’s so so not OK! not OK! “High school football coach suspended for putting penis in hot dog bun at team cookout.” WTF HEADLINE OF THE DAY WTF HEADLINE OF THE DAY www.sadiamonds.com 210-930-3900