The Bradley County commissioner who has long been at odds with the sheriff's department on Monday tore into a reporter for the local paper as a "PR outlet for the sheriff's department" who has "repeatedly printed things that are not true."
During the commission agenda session, Commissioner Dan Rawls said Cleveland Daily Banner reporter Brian Graves last year printed a story quoting Sheriff Eric Watson that falsely implied Rawls had been involved in a murder case years ago, before he moved to Tennessee.
At a commission law enforcement committee meeting last week, Rawls said Bradley County corrections chief Capt. Gabe Thomas had supplied him with a list of people who were paid out of the corrections budget but allegedly didn't work in that department - which was an $800,000-a-year hit to the strapped department's budget.
Graves reported that Thomas flatly denied giving the list to Rawls and said Rawls never asked him about the subject.
Thomas didn't attend either meeting, though Rawls said he'd asked that Thomas be present.
Rawls called former deputy Adam Beard to the podium and asked him to identify a document. Beard said it was a list of corrections employees, with names circled of those paid from the department's budget who didn't work there.
He said Thomas gave him the paper at a private meeting outside the sheriff's office while he was on patrol, specifically to deliver to Rawls.
"Maybe you didn't want anybody in the sheriff's department to see you do that," Rawls suggested.
"Probably," Beard agreed.
Rawls also passed out copies of what he said was a Facebook post by Graves linking him to the gunman who shot congressmen practicing baseball last week in Virginia.
"I find it shameful that we have a media outlet in Bradley County that has repeatedly printed things that are not true, knowing ... they weren't true," Rawls told fellow commissioners.
"... I think it's reprehensible and it's shameful, and let me just acknowledge something to everyone on this commission and everyone in this room: If he can do it to me, he can do it to you.
"And I think it's time this [reporter] stops being a PR outlet for the sheriff and the sheriff's department."
Graves was at the meeting but was not offered an opportunity to respond to Rawls' comments. He did not respond to a Times Free Press request for comment.
Cleveland Daily Banner Publisher Ralph Baldwin also did not return a call seeking comment.
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.