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outcomes
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T
here’s a new Virginia Sheriff’s Association
president in town, and he’s a Bluefield College
graduate, Sheriff Richard Vaughan.
A gentle man of 46 from Fries, Virginia, Vaughan’s
career in law enforcement spans 21 years, including
stints as a conservation officer, a sheriff’s deputy and
an investigator. Since 2007, a year after he earned his
bachelor’s degree in criminal justice through Bluefield
College’s online degree program, he has served as
sheriff of Grayson County.
Now in his second term as sheriff, Vaughan has
reached another professional milestone. He has
been elected president of the Virginia Sheriff’s
Association (VSA), an organization of 8,900 members
that represents the interests and serves as the primary
voice for law enforcement and sheriffs’ offices in the
Virginia General Assembly.
But Vaughan’s career as sheriff didn’t begin as
pleasant as most recent years. In fact, it began
with significant drama with a triple homicide case
involving suspect Freddie Hammer. Killers don’t come
much colder than Hammer, who is serving eight life
sentences in state prison. He has admitted to more
than a dozen murders, and may have committed up
to 17. But before all that, Vaughan, the new sheriff in
town, was sitting at the suspect’s kitchen table, staring
at this alleged serial killer. Known as a “mind-gamer,”
Hammer was smart, and at this moment, pleasant and
jovial. Just like any self-respecting con man, he was
calmly detailing his alibi.
Unlucky for Hammer, Vaughan had completed
excellent training at two community colleges, earned
his criminal justice degree at Bluefield College,
and trained at the Virginia Department of Forensic
Science Academy. He knew how to conduct an
effective investigation, collect evidence, and follow
it all the way to conviction. Or, should we say, in this
case, multiple convictions. Hammer’s eventual total
was seven counts of capital murder.
After an initiation like that, one would expect to meet
a sheriff who is gruff and jaded. Not so. Instead,
Vaughan is cheerful and grounded and possesses
the confidence that is expected from someone in law
enforcement. He is also a religious man. He and his
wife, Amy, and their two children are very active at
Fries Pentecostal Holiness Church.
And while Freddie Hammer may have been a very
dangerous criminal, he wasn’t the last Vaughan
would encounter. If there is a silver lining to the story,
it is that Vaughan and his colleagues are up to the
challenge of keeping Virginians safe, bringing the
guilty to justice, watching the backs of their own, and
keeping their life in balance as they do it.
Original article by Bonnie Atwood for Capitol
Connections,
VCCQM.org.
There’s a New
Sheriff’s Association
President in Town