Aiken County sheriff-elect is sworn in, as are deputies

AIKEN (WRDW/WAGT) - Aiken County Sheriff-Elect Marty Sawyer was sworn in Tuesday afternoon and then later administered the oath to his deputies.

Sawyer was sworn in as the 19th sheriff around 1:30 p.m. at the Aiken County Courthouse.

Then around 4:45 p.m., Sawyer administered the oath to the majority of sworn deputies, which included uniformed patrol, investigators and detention deputies, at Aiken County Government Center in the Sandlapper Room.

Richmond County’s new sheriff swears in scores of new deputies

New Richmond County Sheriff Eugene “Gino” Brantley is swearing in roughly 100 new deputies Thursday at May Park.

With Sawyer’s swearing-in, outgoing Sheriff Michael Hunt said farewell to the deputies in a message on police radio.

“It has been a privilege and a pleasure to lead you,” he said. “May God bless your families and continue to bless the sheriff’s office. So with 43 years’ service and 29 as your sheriff, I’m officially out of service and retired.”

Recently, Sawyer announced several positions for his command staff.

Capt. Eric Abdullah will serve as chief deputy and has been in the position since Dec. 13.

Other appointments include Nick Gallam, detention center operations manager; Clay Adams, sheriff’s office operations manager; Peggy Desmarais, administrative service director; and Andrew Dailey, uniformed patrol captain; Kevin Liles, criminal investigations captain; Jason Todd, special operations captain; Richard Sullivan, technical services captain; Stephanie Callahan, detention center operations captain; and Robert Bowman, detention center support captain.

Wagener council votes to split town from fire department

The Wagener City Council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance that would separate the town from the fire department.

Gallam and Adams will have the rank of major, according to Abdullah.

Sawyer, a Republican, defeated Democrat Lucas Grant for the sheriff position in November.

Sawyer started as a public safety officer at the Aiken Department of Public Safety in 1989, where he worked in the patrol division for eight years. After assignments in the special operations and narcotics divisions and the ATF Rage Task Force, Sawyer was promoted to captain of investigations in 2012.