COUNTY — During a month-long roundup, Pickens County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested 42 people who had
outstanding family court bench warrants.

Chief deputy Creed Hashe said the warrants were mostly issued for failure to pay child support as ordered.

Sheriff Rick Clark issued a directive to deputies to focus on locating those with outstanding family court warrants, and deputies served a total of 54 warrants on the 42 people arrested.

“It takes a lot of resources to research, identify and locate a lot of these people because oftentimes they move from the original address on file with the court,” Clark said. “As we devote resources to searching these folks down and bringing them in to answer to the court, our other daily crimes continue to occur. We still have an obligation to provide the safety and security to our communities while we conduct these types of initiatives.

Clark said coordination with family court to ensure the defendants can be processed through the system is critical.

“Otherwise, our already over-populated jail cannot handle the additional numbers in terms of more inmates,” he said. “The truth is that we can only house so many bodies, and we must allow space for potential cases involving violent offenders.

“With that being said, I will not turn a blind eye to the people in this county who choose to neglect their children by not paying their court-mandated child support.”

Seven of the 42 people arrested had multiple outstanding warrants, Hashe said.

Those arrested throughout the month of the June are listed below.

Petrick L. Bigby, Thomas Brannen, Dennis D. Brown, Jennifer Burgess, Jade E. Clark, Joshue Tyler Clark, Lora Rose Cleland, Timothy C. Dill, Bradley Dodson, Larry A. Dutton, James Travis Fisher, Mary Louise Gantt, Sandra Grant, Kenneth F. Gilstrap, James “Jamie” Gray, Zernesto Henry Hall, Allen Haynes, Thomas J. Heard, Suzanna Marie Hines, Melvin Mark Hooper, Angela Johnson, Robert D. Johnson, Jonathan Lee Kennedy, Jason Garnett Lecroy, Jason Eugene Marcengill, Mark D. Martin, Sabina Martinez, Billy Ray Earl Miller, Billy Shadrian Moore, Michael S. Morrow, James Wade Moyer, Benson R. Nix, Brittany Patterson, Daronda D. Patterson, Thomas R. Potts, Lori Ragsdale, Ashley Nicole Reeves, Joseph P. Rhineberger, Donnie R. Rhodes, Alexander T. Rosa, Gabrielle A. Whitmire and Michael Anthony Williams.