Monday, December 09, 2013

Sheriff Hagaman Says "Watauga Democrat" Story Is Inaccurate

Kellen Short posted a follow-up interview with Sen. Dan Soucek about the Thursday evening public forum on North Carolina education funding. In that interview (according to Kellen Short), "Soucek also called it a 'sad state of affairs' that law enforcement contacted him beforehand to say they wanted to have a presence at the forum."

Not true, asserts Sheriff Hagaman (via text message):
...we did not contact the Senator's office -- we have enough to do without seeking out events. A Jennifer Faulkner [with Senator Soucek] called 2 weeks and again 1 week in advance. Still have voice mails where she contacted patrol commander. No officers were paid. Hopefully, Kellen will help get this straightened out. I have copied her this text

10 comments:

KC said...

How about that? Yet another lie.

Anonymous said...

It seems like it was a good thing the deputies were there because they had to remove an out of control woman from the meeting.

Anonymous said...

This is very disappointing. Sen Soucek and I have friends in common and they have told me on numerous occasions that he is a "good guy" so I hoped that he would at least be 1) open to listening to all his constituents and 2) open and honest in his dealings with them. However, this is the second time I have heard of him being clearly untruthful, and it also feels like he's made up mind already and wants to just dismiss anyone who disagrees as "agitators".

Sen. Soucek, I'm not an agitator and no one pays me but my employer. All I am is a hard-working mom of 2 kids in the Watauga County Schools. I wasn't at the meeting but from what I've read I'd agree 100% with the folks who were angry about the harm done to teachers and education in this state during the last legislative session. Please listen to us and not just your fellow Republican politicians. There's nothing wrong about admitting that a certain policy decision was a mistake, and there's still time to reverse what was done!

me said...

I will be interested to see if the "Watauga Democrat" will print a correction.

Anonymous said...

"It seems like it was a good thing the deputies were there because they had to remove an out of control woman from the meeting."

That's a little bit over the top. The teacher who was asked to leave was not out of control.

Anonymous said...

That's a little bit over the top. The teacher who was asked to leave was not out of control.

Then why was she taken out of the oom when no one else was?

Anonymous said...

She wasn't taken out of the "oom." She was asked to leave about 10 minutes before the forum ended; you make it sound like she was forcibly dragged out of the room.

Phillip said...

Will someone just say it. Soucek lied about the whole situation. His spin unfortunately has a pretty high concentration of dishonesty!

Anonymous said...

So I made a typo, big deal.

Was anyone else asked to leave? Did a deputy escort her out? She was out of control.

Anonymous said...


"She wasn't taken out of the "oom." She was asked to leave about 10 minutes before the forum ended; you make it sound like she was forcibly dragged out of the room."

Not according to Williamson. Even according to his spin, she was removed by a deputy forcibly.


Maybe 15 minutes from the end of the forum, a Watauga County teacher in the audience made a comment about the unreasonably heavy testing done in our schools. A sheriff’s deputy immediately and forcefully removed her. Even after she complied and said to the deputy “I got it, I’m leaving!” and began heading to the exit, the deputy grabbed her, exclaiming, “No you don’t!” and continued to pull her to the exit.