LUGOFF (WACH) - Although it was far from an emergency; the phone lines were burning up at the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office last week, over an article "liked" by former Kershaw GOP Chairman Jeff Mattox.
The article talked about shooting cops.
Sheriff Jim Matthews criticized Mattox for supporting the article; that set off a wave of callers who jumped to Mattox's defense.
"He was very much supporting this man's right to endorse or support that article," Matthews said about one of the callers.
Sheriff Matthews is a Republican who used to attend local party meetings. He supports free speech but not at the expense of the sheriff's department's phone lines.
"it's definitely a nuisance," Matthews said of the callers. "It hindered us from being able to take phone calls from the public for almost an hour I think it was fifty minutes it went on for."
SLED is investigating the incident, and Matthews will prosecute those responsible if necessary.
"Although it's an annoyance, it's not high on our priority list," said Matthews. "We've got home invasions, drug dealers, we've got homicides. That takes way more precedence."
WACH-Fox called Kershaw County Co-Chair Chris Oviatt for comment on this story but did not hear back from him.
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