Johnston’s Sheriff Pours Himself Into His Work
Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell never had to look far to find the difference between right and wrong.
His father, a Pentecostal Holiness preacher, grew vegetables for a living but never planted tobacco because it was harmful to the body. And his grandfather, who founded the church where his father preached, made his living busting liquor stills all over the county.
The stories about his grandfather inspired the young Bizzell to be a law enforcement officer.
Now, as Bizzell (rhymes with “sizzle”) presides over the biggest case of his career, he is exactly where he pictured himself so many years ago: drawing the line between right and wrong.
Bizzell, 42, has stepped cautiously in the investigation of the July 26 deaths of three teenage siblings, well aware of the attention focused on his office. It took one week from the day the bodies were found in their family’s mobile home for Bizzell’s office and the State Bureau of Investigation to disclose that the deaths resulted from murder-suicide, for example. And even then, Bizzell let others do most of the talking.
He wasn’t always so guarded. With his election in 1998, Bizzell made it clear he believed the office needed shaking up. He called in reporters to tag along on drug searches in the county schools, issued news releases left and right, and announced sweeping changes in his staff.
Some of his decisions have drawn criticism. And some who have worked with Bizzell have disagreed with his leadership style, pointing to the office’s high turnover rate.
But if Bizzell ever wavered, he won’t admit it.
“I’m not tooting my own horn, but I’ve done a good job, and I know that,” he says. “I strive at it every day.”
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From dropout to sheriff
Bizzell, a Republican, was an unlikely candidate to topple 70 years of Democratic leadership in the sheriff’s office.
His father was devoted to Jesse Helms’ editorials on TV. Every night at dinner, the entire household would hush when Helms came on. It was, Steve Bizzell says, “one of the highlights of the day.”
The Rev. Thomas E. Bizzell preached at Bizzell Grove Church and supported his family of three boys and five girls by growing collards, watermelon, potatoes, turnip greens and mustard greens.
After the elder Bizzell developed back problems, Steve Bizzell quit school in the 10th grade to work on the family’s farm near Princeton.
Bizzell also helped out with his uncle’s dump truck and landscaping businesses and, during winters, with his older brother’s health food business. He obtained his GED and attended basic law enforcement training at Wilson Technical Community College.
As a 39-year-old candidate, Bizzell claimed a total of 13 years of experience with the sheriff’s office, including four years as a regular deputy. The rest of that time, he held the title of special deputy under Sheriff George Johnson. That meant the sheriff’s office could call him for help, but he wasn’t on the regular payroll.
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Deciding to run
When Johnson died in 1986, long-time deputy Freddy Narron was appointed sheriff. Bizzell considered running against Narron in 1994 but figured the public would think he was too young, at 35.
Challenging Narron four years later, Bizzell charged that the incumbent had lost touch with average people in the county and wasn’t doing enough to fight drugs. When he won, by about 1,000 votes, Bizzell said the victory proved people were ready for a change.
It was a change for Bizzell, too. One day, he was out on Biz-Zee Acres farm, clad in blue jeans, a work shirt and no socks; the next, he was putting on a button-down shirt, tie, slacks and good shoes and heading for the office.
The long hours, though, remained the same.
Bizzell often checks up on deputies in the middle of the night to make sure they’re working hard, sometimes stepping in himself. One woman called the sheriff’s office to report a prowler in her back yard and was surprised when Bizzell arrived. “Her response was ‘Sheriff, I didn’t mean for you to come out,’ ” he says.
A little over a week ago, Bizzell was awakened by a call from the office about a handcuffed suspect fleeing deputies in a patrol car. He jumped out of bed and joined the chase. The suspect ran Bizzell’s car off the road before crashing into a tree.
A few days after the deaths of the three teens – Marnie, Brandon and Kyle Warren – Bizzell was torn. He was scheduled to attend the annual meeting of the state sheriffs’ association in Wrightsville Beach and then take a vacation with his family, but he didn’t want to be away from the investigation. Bizzell went to the meeting but left before it ended. He opted out of the vacation.
“My wife and family know that in a situation like this, my job overrides the family time,” he says.
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Under the spotlight
Nonetheless, some of Bizzell’s moves have been controversial.
During a 1999 search with drug-sniffing dogs, deputies seized a cigar from a student’s car at Smithfield-Selma High School. The student was suspended for four months before tests revealed that there were no drugs in the cigar.
An accidental shooting last fall of Major Buck Pipkin, during a training exercise, came as another embarrassment. Pipkin was out of work for more than three months.
Then, in February, Bizzell’s office missed a chance to warn a man that his life was in danger. State prison officials had contacted the sheriff’s office after they found phony suicide notes that a prison guard at Johnston Correctional Institution allegedly had written for her husband. No one from Bizzell’s office notified the husband, however; 13 days later he was shot to death. His wife is charged with murder.
In each of the incidents, Bizzell denied any missteps. He suggested the SBI was to blame for a delayed drug test of the cigar. After Pipkin’s shooting, he issued a news release citing the episode as a reminder of the need for gun safety. And after the death of the guard’s husband, he said his office had no reason to think a crime was about to be committed.
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Some ex-employees unhappy
Some former employees have accused Bizzell of dealing with them unfairly. When he took over, the office had 136 employees. Since then, 79 have retired, resigned or been dismissed. Many went to higher-paying jobs in other agencies, Bizzell says, and were replaced by well-qualified people.
“I’m not ashamed to say I’ve raised the standards around here,” he says. “We don’t just hire Uncle Joe’s sister’s brother’s paint boy.”
But others see things differently.
Romaine Lee says Bizzell fired her as director of the county’s Juvenile Restitution Program in March 1999 because she was a Democrat and a strong supporter of Narron.
“I was flabbergasted,” Lee says of her firing. She filed a grievance with the state Office of Administrative Hearings, but the case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
Deputy Ronald Medlin, an 18-year veteran, left the department in November 1999. Medlin had been wounded in the side and knee in 1995 by a gunman who also killed his partner, Deputy Clendon Paul West.
Medlin declined to be interviewed, but his wife, JoAnn Medlin, said the sheriff’s office told her husband not to go back to work in 1999 after his injured knee gave way and he fell, hurting his neck.
Bizzell had assured Medlin that he would continue to receive a paycheck and that a job would always be available, Mrs. Medlin says, but then her husband’s paychecks stopped coming.
“Nobody informed us that he didn’t have a job,” she says. “That was dirty.” Medlin, then 58, retired because he didn’t think he would ever be allowed to return to work, she says.
Bizzell won’t talk about those cases, saying only that Lee’s firing had nothing to do with politics and that Medlin “is a good person, was a good deputy. His retirement was a loss.”
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No leadership experience
John Benson, a former deputy who resigned in February 2000, was critical of Bizzell’s staff restructuring.
“The most supervisory experience he’s had is working his own farm, but now he is supervisor of a law enforcement agency,” says Benson, now a police officer in Selma. “His restructuring program
– to me it was like equipping the place like Wal-mart.”
Bizzell sought help at the start of his term from Chuck Fuller, who had managed former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth’s unsuccessful campaign for reelection. Bizzell hired Fuller, who was not a certified officer, to be his chief of staff.
Fuller was on the payroll five months before becoming executive director of Citizens for a Sound Economy, the group that helped defeat the Wake County school bonds in 1999. After that, the sheriff’s office kept Fuller as a consultant, paying him $ 32,250 in fees through last December.
There are no written reports or records of Fuller’s consulting work. But Fuller says he focused on management and cost-cutting.
Bizzell says Fuller’s recommendations will save more than
$ 250,000 over four years from a combination of “little things we did away with.” They include ending a $ 1,600 radio maintenance agreement and having officers clean patrol cars themselves instead of paying for car washes. Bizzell even stopped serving coffee to jail inmates, which he says cut down on sugar, creamer, cups and the cost of heating water.
Bizzell has found both critics and supporters.
Phil Taylor, a stockbroker in Four Oaks, says he started off as a supporter of the sheriff but has been “very disappointed in his record so far.” He doesn’t approve of the way Bizzell has handled employee relations, including Lee’s and Medlin’s cases.
In next year’s election, Taylor says, “I’ll be voting for somebody else.”
But others offer praise.
“I would say that Steve has done an outstanding job,” says District Attorney Tom Lock, a Democrat. “He’s approached the job with a lot of enthusiasm. He’s certainly dedicated.”
Bizzell has no announced opposition, but appears to be thinking ahead to the day when he will ask voters to let him keep his job. Visiting stores and cafes around the county, he introduces himself and hands out paper fans that say “I’m a fan of Sheriff Steve Bizzell.” He addresses women as “young lady” and “shug” and men as “buddy.”
“Everybody has their dreams, but sometimes when they happen, you don’t believe it,” he says. “All my life, it’s been my dream.”
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Steve Bizzell
Birthdate: Nov. 14, 1958
Family: Wife, Jennifer; children, Blake, 13, Brent, 8, and Brenna, 4
Hobbies: “My hobby is farming, driving the tractor. … I work with my daddy and older brother on the farm.”
Church: Bizzell Grove Church on Bizzell Grove Church Road. The church was founded by his grandfather, Thomas M. Bizzell. As sheriff, he says he tries to visit a different church every Sunday to meet people.
On his desk: A small wooden plaque inscribed, “And on the 8th day God created Sheriffs” and a wooden figurine of two elephants.
What he drinks for a jump-start in the morning: Coca-Cola
CORRECTION-DATE: August 23, 2001
CORRECTION:
A story on Page 1B Sunday was unclear about how long Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell’s office had information that a man’s life was in danger. Bizzell said his office did not have sufficient information to pursue the matter until the day before the man was found dead.
GRAPHIC: c photo Steve Bizzell, the sheriff of Johnston County, is investigating the deaths of three youths killed in a murder-suicide. Staff Photo By Chris Seward
