Webster prepares to retire

Sheriff says he looks forward to break from public life as he reviews his 17 years in office

Web posted Monday, December 25, 2000

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 Time line

By Sylvia Cooper
Staff Writer

You could call him the reluctant sheriff. He never wanted the spotlight and never planned to run for sheriff - until the Southside Mafia got hold of him and talked him into it 17 years ago.

Sheriff Charles Webster plans to do some fishing after he officially retires Sunday. The sheriff said he hopes to be remembered as a people person. CHRIS THELEN/STAFF

Four elections later, in 1996, he thought he'd retire for sure. He even had his paperwork done, but consolidation came along, and he got talked into running one more time.

So now, Richmond County Sheriff Charles B. Webster is more than ready to leave public life.

``I'm tired of it,'' he said last week. ``Law enforcement is not my cup of tea.''

Sheriff-elect Ronnie Strength was sworn in Tuesday, but his term will not become official until Sheriff Webster's ends Sunday.

Then a new era in Richmond County law enforcement will begin. Nobody knows that better than Sheriff Webster, who hand-picked and groomed his successor, and by doing so, did what he said he does best.

``When I first entered the political arena, I was always helping somebody else get elected,'' he said during a recent four-hour interview. ``I never did have too much idea about running for political office myself. I was kind of in the background helping other people.

``In fact, I hadn't even thought about running when I did run. I was already going to retire from the state on Jan. 31, 1984. People told me I had better run now, because if somebody else gets in office, they're going to be hard to beat.''

Those people were a group of political kingmakers known as the Southside Mafia who wielded power in Richmond County for decades. Chief among them was founder Roy V. Harris, a legendary lawyer and Cracker Party politician who didn't actually live in south Augusta but on the Hill.

Others were state legislators Bernard Miles and Mike Padgett and former Richmond County attorney Bob Daniel, all of whom are deceased.

But Mr. Harris was Mr. Webster's hero.

``He was a person that could talk to any person on their own level,'' the sheriff said. ``He taught me so much about politics.''

What Sheriff Webster learned from Mr. Harris about people and politics is what he hopes he'll be remembered by.

``The one thing that I'd like to be remembered for is being a people person,'' he said. ``It doesn't take much time to help people.''

And he has helped many, among them Jessie Fulcher, who said she will be 86 years old if she lives to see the ``third day of February.''

Mrs. Fulcher lived in a two-room shack in Hephzibah with no bathroom and only one water pipe coming into the house with a bucket under it until someone brought the conditions to Sheriff Webster's attention. He got a group he would identify only as ``my friends'' to donate material and rebuild her shack into a cozy little bedroom cottage.

``They came and fixed it and gave me a bathroom, and they didn't charge me anything,'' Mrs. Fulcher said.

During his last days in office, Sheriff Webster is wheeling and dealing to get his department things it needs before he leaves. He knows that Sheriff-elect Strength won't do that.

``He won't have a damned thing,'' he laughed. ``Pretty Boy Floyd's fingers are too clean. He's a professional law enforcement officer. He won't want to get his fingers dirty.''

There's nothing Sheriff Webster loves more than working a deal, he said.

When he was looking for shelving for the records and evidence building he helped have built across from the jail, he found a building full of office furniture that could be had for $40,000, only $2,000 more than the shelving.

``Don't you know they (Augusta commissioners) like to have turned me down, didn't want me to buy it. I must have got a half-million dollars worth of furniture. Got furniture for everybody. High-dollar desks, too.''

There's no doubt about it, Sheriff Webster does have his own style.

When pressed about an allegation that someone years ago had received a cushy government job as repayment for taking the Fifth Amendment during a trial to keep a prominent Augusta official out of jail, Sheriff Webster chuckled and looked away.

``I take the Fifth on that,'' he said, adding, ``I don't hardly pay no attention to things that don't pertain to me.''

Some people have complained publicly that Sheriff Webster hasn't paid attention to some things that do pertain to him, namely the operation of his department, leaving it to then-Chief Deputy Strength.

The allegations, which Sheriff Webster denies, reached their height after the Feb. 28, 1998, shooting death of 29-year-old Alfaigo Davis.

Mr. Davis was shot 10 times by two Richmond County deputies on Jonathan Court in Apple Valley after leading them on a chase from a routine traffic stop.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to investigate. A Richmond County grand jury did not indict the two deputies involved.

After the shooting, the Human Relations Commission began a push for a sheriff's department citizens advisory board. Sheriff Webster said he would name one from candidates proposed by the commission, but when the slate was presented to him he balked, saying the commission had botched the selection process.

Sheriff Webster said the department already has two review boards and doesn't need another.

``You hate it when something like that happens,'' he said in reference to Mr. Davis' death. ``Understand this. We don't examine a case that involves our people. We call outside help to come in. The GBI comes in on a case like this. They reviewed this case, and after they finished their investigation they turned it over to the DA.

``I have never tried to hide anything since I've been there, and I don't intend to. I feel like we treat our people fair, and we try to treat the public fair. Sure, we may make mistakes sometimes. But when people have made mistakes, we punish our people. I just don't think we need no review board.''

The best thing he has done as sheriff, he said,has been to get things built, especially the state CSRA Law Enforcement Training Center on 20 acres off Camp Josey Road.

``This training range is very important,'' he said. ``It's the best one besides Forsyth itself in the state of Georgia. I'm very, very proud of it.''

Training in law enforcement is essential today for an officer's success, he said.

``When you went into the courtroom when I began as a revenue agent in 1956, you tried the defendant. In a lot of cases today, they try the officers just about as much as they do the defendant.''

Sheriff Webster said he has been offered three jobs for when he leaves office at the end of the year but won't go to work for a while.

``Really, I don't know what the future holds for me,'' he said.

But he does know he's come a long way from where he was.

``I've done fairly well for myself,'' he said. ``I can recall when I was 10 years old, and a man offered me $2 a day to plow, and I plowed a mule. He says, `Charles, you're good for your age.' He said, `I'll pay you top wages.' And I plowed two days and made that $4.

``I got more money in my pocket right now than we made on that farm that whole year. And we had plenty to eat. Don't get me wrong. We were just like everybody else. And it wasn't that bad.''

Being born in hard times makes a fellow appreciate more, he said.

``You appreciate your friends and your fellow man a little bit more,'' he said. ``You have a little bit more compassion. I think sometimes when people are born with a silver spoon, you don't see that.''

He had grown a little sad after four hours of reminiscing.

``Richmond County has been good to Charlie Webster, and I thank them,'' he said with a tear in his eye. ``I do. I've been a lucky man.''

Time line

Some key events in the life and career of Richmond County Sheriff Charles Webster:

Feb. 28, 1932: Born on a farm in Wheeler County, about 130 miles south of Augusta

1944: His father dies and his mother and four siblings move to Columbus, Ga.

1952: Graduates from Jordon Vocational High School in Columbus

1952: Joins the Navy and spends the next four years touring the Pacific

1956: Becomes a revenue agent with the Georgia Revenue Service

1984: Wins sheriff election twice. The first time was in a Jan. 31 special election to fill the unexpired term of Sheriff J.B. Dykes, who went to jail for ticket fixing. When Sheriff Dykes left office in 1983, the Richmond County Commission created a county police force and named a chief to take over law enforcement, relegating the sheriff's department to serving the courts and overseeing the jail. Voters rejected the county police force in a 1985 referendum.

In the first election, there were five candidates. Sheriff Webster received the most votes, but was forced into a Feb. 21 runoff with Johnny Beard. Sheriff Webster won.

November 1984: Without opposition in the general election, he wins a four-year term.

1987: Begins work on the Richmond County Law Enforcement Training Center off Camp Josey Road with the construction of a lodge hall on 20 acres of land

November 1988: Wins election to a second four-year term, defeating Bobby Williams

1992: Wins election to a third four-year term, again defeating Bobby Williams

1996: Wins election to a fourth four-year term with 80 percent of the vote, defeating John Pardue

1996: Renovates an election precinct building on Watkins Street into a narcotics squad headquarters

1999: Completes an evidence and records-storage facility building across from the training center

Oct. 29, 1999: Announces he will not run for a fifth term in 2000

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228.

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