'Hate, negativity, and vitriol': Walker County Sheriff's Office deactivates Facebook page
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The Walker County Sheriff's Facebook page, along with the personal page of Sheriff Nick Smith, has been deactivated.
In a statement released late Friday night, Smith said that while he once viewed it as an efficient way to quickly provide information to the public, the page had become "a point of contention."
"Our Facebook page isn鈥檛 necessary," he continued. "We aren鈥檛 required to maintain one, and once the purpose of our page was lost, it was time to let it go. Everything that was ever posted was done with the intention to be transparent and informative to the public. Unfortunately, I don鈥檛 think certain parts of the public were ready to be that informed."
"Law enforcement is a tough business, and things that we deal with on a daily basis are sometimes something a regular citizen couldn鈥檛 dream up in a million years," he continued. "Sometimes that can be a shock to the system of people who aren鈥檛 used to seeing it, and here in Walker County I think that was definitely the case."
This comes shortly after sheriff鈥檚 deputies Carl Carpenter and James Handley were indicted on felony deprivation of rights charges for allegedly assaulting in 2023, who died two weeks later when he was detained in a concrete cell covered in feces with no toilet or access to medical attention.
At least 10 jail employees have pleaded guilty to charges related to the death of the 33-year-old.
The two sheriff鈥檚 deputies arrested Mitchell on Jan. 12, 2023, after a relative asked for a welfare check on him. The sheriff鈥檚 office said at the time that Mitchell was talking about portals to hell and asserted that he had fired a weapon at officers.
Carpenter is accused of stepping on Mitchell while he was handcuffed until he couldn鈥檛 walk. Then both deputies allegedly dragged Mitchell on the ground, kicked him and slammed him onto the police car. Handley is accused of also accused of witness tampering for allegedly lying to a separate grand jury about the incident in August.
Plea documents in the 10 other cases have detailed a local law enforcement culture that rewarded officers who abused incarcerated people, including Mitchell. One plea document said that officers intentionally kept the conditions in a local Alabama jail 鈥渁s filthy as possible鈥� to convince county commissioners to increase salaries and the budget of the jail.
The deputies indicted are the first Walker County Sheriff鈥檚 Office employees charged who were not assigned to work in the jail. Both deputies have arraignment dates set for March.
Smith did not mention the indictments, but stated that the department and Walker County as a whole are "going through an unprecedentedly difficult time."
"While I understand everyone鈥檚 varied thoughts and opinions, I no longer see a reason to provide a platform for hate, negativity, and vitriol."
Moving forward, all information from the Walker County Sheriff's Office will come through its app.
This article contains information from the Associated Press.