CLEVELAND, Tenn. - A spokesman for a political action committee working against Bradley County Sheriff Eric Watson's re-election fired back Sunday after Watson called it a "fake Christian special interest group" that used "doctored-up photos" in a critical ad.
"That's just not true," Joshua Standifer, spokesman for Christians for Accountable Leadership, said Sunday. He also accused Watson of "manipulating the public for political gain."
Steve LawsonWatson made the accusation Saturday night while debating opponent Steve Lawson at an event sponsored by the Bradley County Republican Party and moderated by party chairman Richard Burnette.
Each candidate was allowed to ask the other a question, and this was Watson's:
"In the past week, a fake Christian special interest group that is represented by a boy from Nashville has attacked our inmate faith reform program and also tried to put a bad light on our local churches by involving them in his article. Even doctored-up photos by putting an inmate's mug shot over the face of current and former inmates while they was [sic] giving their testimony behind the altar of a church. These same supporters and contributors to your campaign just recently submitted open records requests to the Bradley County Attorney's Office seeking emails and conversations for certain local pastors in our community, ministries and churches here in Bradley County. Would you be willing to show your phone records to the Cleveland Daily Banner for the last 90 days to prove to the citizens of Bradley County that you had no association or have spoken to any member of this group?"
Watson was referring to an ad the PAC launched Thursday that said the sheriff misled and endangered the public by taking nine men serving felony sentences to his brother's church last May.
On his Facebook page, Watson referred to the men as "former inmates." Photos on the page showed them, in civilian clothes and unshackled, mingling with the congregation.
The men's convictions included vehicular homicide, manufacturing meth, aggravated burglary and multiple probation violations. The PAC linked some of their mugshots to the faces in the photos but did not alter the photos.
Watson held a news conference Thursday and denounced the PAC for "dirty politics."
Standifer and Lawson contested several things about Watson's debate assertion.
"Mr. Watson wants to spin this as an attack on his faith. And that's completely false. This is another instance of him manipulating the public for political gain," Standifer said in an emailed statement.
"An additional example of this was the Sheriff's Debate on Saturday night," the statement continued. "Mr. Watson was allowed to close his debate by asking any question he wanted to. Instead of focusing on how Bradley County could be made safer or what improvements could be made to the jail, he attacked innocent civilians in an attempt to clean up his tarnished political image."
At the debate, Lawson said he would not turn over his phone records to the local paper, saying they "had a history." On Sunday, Lawson told the Times Free Press the paper had printed an ad in his 2010 campaign for sheriff that was a "pure fabrication."
He also denied there is any connection between the PAC and his campaign.
Watson released papers last week showing the PAC's president, Nadene Haines, and her husband had contributed to Lawson's campaign in December. The PAC was formed in February, but by law it is not allowed to communicate or coordinate with a candidate unless it discloses the connection in campaign finance reports.
"They don't coordinate with me, I don't know anything about the PAC. I stand for my campaign," Lawson said.
"The question they need to be asking themselves is why they [the Hainses, who gave money and organized events for Watson in his 2014 campaign] are not supporting him instead of why they're supporting me."
Watson interpreted many of the debate issues Saturday night through the lens of faith.
He said he'd gotten calls from four pastors asking him to bring the "reformed trusties" to church.
"I stand on the rock, they can challenge my faith all they want to, but I know one thing, that the inmate program has changed lives, and I'm going to continue it, I'm not going to stop it because of some stupid, ignorant people in this county," he said.
Asked about the overcrowded jail failing its Tennessee Corrections Institute inspection in February, Watson said the inspectors, whose visits are unannounced, can almost always find problems given inmates' habits of tearing up anything they can, from mattresses to toilets and showers.
"It's always going to be a problem, it's never going be solved, unless we just go back to the old days and just take the mattresses away from them, just treat 'em like they used to in the '50s and '60s where you where you get the water hose and the fire hydrant and hook it up and just spray 'em down," Watson said. "You can't do that no more. They have more rights than the schools. It's sad."
After failing the inspection, Watson moved 74 inmates to state prison. But a school bus carrying 60 male felons had a flat on Interstate 75, also raising safety questions. Watson said the state for months had ignored the jail's pleas to come take its prisoners, but the Tennessee Department of Correction said it had no record of any unanswered requests.
On the question of balancing capital costs to expand the jail against the income from housing state prisoners, the sheriff said jail overcrowding is a statewide and nationwide problem.
"It's just going to get worse until America gets God back into our school system and families get serious about meeting around the table and praying over the dinner at night," he said.
Lawson answered the same question by saying he'd talk to county commissioners about predicted jail populations over the next four or eight years and see if there was consensus on adding more cells.
Lawson also said he supports trusty programs for litter pickup outside the jail, but "they ought to be dressed as prisoners. My reasoning is this, because you never know when something bad is going to happen."
He mentioned an incident that happened in July in Polk County, Tenn., when a prisoner on work detail got hold of a gun.
"You've got to be very, very careful because that's a big liability for the county," he said, referring to 18 suits pending now against the sheriff's office. Watson said some of those dated to prior administrations.
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.