Augusta County Sheriff’s Office embroiled in controversies

AFP editors Crystal Graham and Chris Graham have been hard at work this week tracking down the details of three ongoing controversies involving the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office.

In our Friday podcast, #TeamAFP breaks down:

Augusta County: Family of man who died in police custody wants answers

The family of a Staunton man who died in the back of an Augusta County Sheriff’s Office patrol car on May 5 is trying to get answers.

“There is real injustice here, and I truly feel like Stefan was assaulted to the point of his death,” Wade Gerencser, the brother of Stefan Gerencser, 39, wrote on social media, in a post brought to our attention by a family friend, Gary Bone, who served in the Marine Corps with the Gerencser brothers.

Former deputy files $5.35M suit against Augusta County sheriff over forced resignation

The $5.35 million federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith that is making news today might need to be taken with a grain of salt.

The reason I’m starting there: the allegations in the suit, Reynolds v. Smith, filed in the Harrisonburg Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, filed on behalf of a former sheriff’s deputy, Dennis Reynolds, were first peddled to me in 2023 by people who I know to be sworn political enemies of Smith, whose original sin was running for sheriff in 2015 against the handpicked candidate of the local political machine, and then winning.

Augusta County sheriff reprimands Black deputy over lighthearted TikTok

Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith still hasn’t commented on the lawsuit alleging that he sexually harassed a former male employee, but he found time on Thursday to publicly reprimand a Black deputy for comments she made on a TikTok video.

In case you’re wondering, yes, this was another instance of your sheriff letting himself get played on a public stage.