Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers dropped in on the Summerfield Town Council on Tuesday, March 12 – the Town Council that the wife of former Sheriff BJ Barnes sits on – and dropped a bomb. Rogers told the Town Council that, when he came in to assume the role of sheriff after Barnes’ defeat, he arrived to find computers removed and papers gone.
As Rogers spoke on the matter at the Summerfield Community Center, Summerfield Town Councilmember Dena Barnes sat at the dais and listened. She didn’t say anything in response to Rogers, but it’s hard to imagine that the wife of the former sheriff wasn’t thinking up a storm.
Rogers said that was a major reason his administration had a rough transition when he became sheriff.
He began by telling the Town Council and audience members at the meeting that they had no doubt heard about that transition through the media.
“Many of you read different articles throughout the different news media,” he said. “Of course, we had some transition issues.”
He said that he and his staff had to essentially start from nothing.
“We came in and didn’t have any way to start other than start from ground zero,” Rogers said. “What do I mean – ground zero? Papers were destroyed. Computers were taken out. So we had nothing; we had no information, nowhere to start.”
At no time in his address did Rogers mention BJ Barnes’ name, but the clear implication seemed to be that Barnes and/or his departing staff attempted to sabotage Roger’s transition by removing computers and destroying documents.
Rogers has claimed before that Barnes did not help at all in the transition but the new claims that computers were removed and papers destroyed ratcheted that accusation up to a new level.
At the meeting, Rogers said that, despite having basically nothing to go on when he and his new staff came in, they were able to get on track and they now have the office running well.
“The men and women that were there helped us bring the pieces together,” he said.
BJ Barnes said last year after the election that he and his officers did attempt to help Rogers with the transition, but Rogers wanted nothing to do with anything Barnes had been part of and certainly didn’t want his help.
Barnes said at that time that Rogers did not show up for a scheduled transition meeting, but Rogers denies that there ever was a meeting scheduled to begin with.
Former Guilford County Sheriff’s Department Colonel Randy Powers and other top sheriff’s staff told the Rhino Timesat that time that the department attempted to help Rogers and his new staff – for the sake of the county and its citizens – but they said that Rogers and his new staff clearly had strong ideas about what needed to be done and they didn’t want any input from Barnes’ or his top staff.
They said one clear indication of that is that Rogers conducted a wholesale firing of officers that he deemed to be loyal to Barnes.
Rogers has maintained that those firings were conducted after a thorough review of each employee and he has also pointed out that some of the fired employees were only working on a part-time, as-needed basis.
As if the whole evening weren’t awkward enough, at the end of his speech, Rogers asked to shake all of the Town Council members’ hands, and he proceeded to shake those hands, including Dena Barnes.’
So if County property was removed (your polite way of saying stolen) and government correspondence destroyed why have you not started and investigation and brought people up on charges? You are making very serious accusations but I don’t see any action.
And of all places you mention this at the Summerfield Town Council meeting. No, there’s no sour grapes there.
When will this Sheriff stop pointing blame at everyone but himself!
Really classy on Rogers’s part. (sarc)
This is easy enough to track. All computers have serial numbers and are county property. Easy enough to track. The investigation that Rogers had the Major Crimes Section supervisor conduct after he came into office should be made public.
As for the “no help during the transition” claim, a Freedom of Information Act email request for the emails of Sheriff Barnes’ Chief Warrant Officer (who rumor has it was tasked with reaching out to Rogers) for the w
week after the election should clear the issue up. I’ve heard that Rogers met with Skip Alston prior to the scheduled meeting with Barnes’ staff and was told not to meet with them. Who knows if that is true…
The irony is, Roger’s may believe what he said. His staff supervisor (who was a former Sgt. In Detention) fired the office supervisor who handled many of the high level functions of the administrative office. Then Rogers himself ran off the purchasing specialist. That left no one with any idea how the place worked. Chances are he is in the dark about what he was left with. Anyone who stands up to him leaves shortly thereafter (Ed Melvin).
It’s easier to blame your predecessor, just like Obama did for 8 years, than to take any responsibility…I have a few reasons why it has been and “rough transition.”
1. Your a political hack and don’t know what your doing and are clearly in over your head.
2. You fired the 30+ people who knew what they were doing and how to run the business of the Sheriff’s Office.
3. You have over 60 vacancies in the agency because no one want to work there because of #1.
Just a few reasons why. But no, keep blaming the guy who isn’t there anymore and make false accusations you cannot back up and then be “too busy” to make account for your false accusations.
The first thing I like to say is that Rogers stated that Barnes was doing things wrong, so what help could he had offered, either BJ was doing it right or not. The destruction of documents and stealing of computers is a crime, and that is not BJ’s style.
I am just lost that you blame BJ for things when you claim he did all wrong, what could he have helped you with. I like to say I don’t think this is Rogers talking, someone is putting words in his mouth against BJ.