Questioning the Motivations of How Sheriff Jim Arnott Uses the Resources of the Greene County Sherrif's Department

David Williams was released. All charges were dropped against the young man by Greene County prosecutor Darell Moore. In case you forget the name Williams, he was the man arrested when the house he, his fiance, and her children lived in burned to the ground. Federal officials were brought to the scene almost immediately and a police trained dog pointed officers pointed to officers the existence of accelerant on Williams’ pants. Of course, Williams was employed by Congressional candidate Michael Wardell, who owns Oscar Ribs BBQ and uses accelerants to start a fire each morning. The likelihood there would be accelerant on Williams pants considering his job was near 100%. Williams is a free man today, but not without insult by the Greene County Sheriffs Office led by Sheriff Jim Arnott.

With inconsistencies in the case well discussed by many in Southwest Missouri, many had doubts that Williams was responsible for the fire, which killed the children in the house. This isn't about Williams. This is about Sheriff Arnott. You see, Williams' attorney argued to a judge to allow Williams to attend the funeral of the children. Judge Mark Powell granted Williams time to attend the funeral, which Sheriff Arnott's office denied.

Arnott issued the following statement:

“The Greene County Sheriff’s Office will not have adequate staffing on Sunday, March 21st, to facilitate the transport of inmate David Williams to a private funeral service. Associate Circuit Judge Mark Powell ruled Williams could attend the private service if the Sheriff’s Office had enough staff to transport Williams to and from the service while not allowing contact with anyone other than law enforcement. There will be no further comments regarding this by the Sheriff’s Office.”

Now, fast forward to last week. Sheriff Jim Arnott becomes a controversial figure in Billy Long and his office using the FBI in hopes of silencing a blogger by trumping up instances in which Congressman Long was asked tough questions on the campaign trail as perceived threats. After the incident, the question the media kept asking is what is Sheriff Arnott doing in Christian County.

Arnott went on the Nick Reed show claiming the address they had on hand for the blogger was a Republic address. The only address the blogger had in Republic was a Christian County address a couple miles outside of Greene County, which of course is Arnott's jurisdiction. It appears Arnott may be inconsistent with how resources are used in his own department. Obviously, like many government offices across the state, these are tight times in which tax dollars coming into these offices have grown tighter, especially in law enforcement. Considering how careful Arnott's been in the past, including denying a man in which law enforcement's case against was weak from the beginning to attend the funeral of three children he considered his own, one has to ask why wasn't the resources of the Greene County Sheriff's Office considered before Arnott decided to play sheriff in Christian County.