Former Sheriff Gerald Hege signs can be found all across the county as he recently announced his candidacy.
“I loved the job, and I had a good time and lot of fun,” Hege said. “I just wanted people to have the chance to have a voice and actually go to the polls and say, ‘We want that guy’ or not.”
Originally, Hege proposed that if Davidson County residents put out 200 “Vote for Hege” signs by Thanksgiving, he would continue to seek support until Christmas. If he saw 500 signs by Christmas, he would continue work until February and decide whether or not he would file. Having met his Christmas goal four times over, Hege said he now knows what his decision will be.
“I’ve won six elections, and I’ve never had more than 500 or 600 signs out, but now I’ve got more than 2,000,” he said. “Some politicians would crawl from Washington, D.C., on their hands and knees to get 2,000 people to ask for a sign. I’m not calling people up, I’m not running ads in the paper, but we’ve got people driving from Wallburg and all over to get them.”
Hege said that he would bring crime back down in the county and listed some of his accomplishments in office, including the establishment of a round-the-clock check on the elderly and the first 24-7 drug interdiction team in North Carolina. He also said he was the only sheriff to have Ku Klux Klan members turn in their robes and disband their group.
The former sheriff’s time in office also sparked plenty of controversy. In May of 2004, he pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice for attempting to cover up money missing from the vice and narcotics unit of the sheriff’s department. He was removed from office and served three years of probation, which ended in 2007.
As part of his plea bargain, 13 of 15 charges against Hege were dismissed, including five counts of embezzlement and five counts of obtaining property by false pretenses.
“The only reason you’re investigating a man for eight and a half years and you drop 13 charges is because you can’t prove them,” Hege said. “It’s not because you fall in love with him all of a sudden. I pleaded guilty to those two that I felt like I had made mistakes on, and they dropped the charges.”
Current North Carolina law prohibits convicted felons from owning or carrying a firearm, but Hege thinks that a decision made by the N.C. Supreme Court in October may allow him to carry a gun as sheriff.
The case in question is that of a felon named Barney Britt whose citizenship had been restored. The court ruled that because Britt was a nonviolent offender who had served his time, and who had legally owned guns for 17 years, it was unreasonable to prohibit him from keeping and bearing arms. Hege could seek the same exemption for himself.
Hege said that his criminal record would not affect his work as sheriff or his tough-on-crime stance. The self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” once had the Davidson County Jail painted pink with crying blue teddy bears, removed all TVs and books — except the Bible — from the jail and reinstituted chain gang labor.
Now that the TVs have returned, Hege says he wants to remove them again and repaint the jail pink. First, the citizens of Davidson County must decide if they want to give him another chance in office.
“The bottom line is, I paid my dues,” Hege said. “How long does a man have to pay his dues? If they wanted to sentence me to 40 years, they would have. Now, I’m just saying, ‘Hey, if you’d like to give me a second chance, that’s fine. If not, I understand.’”
Hege will face off against current Davidson County Sheriff David Grice in the Republican primary, but he said that he isn’t currently seeking the party’s support, letting his candidacy be a “Sheriff Hege thing.”
“I spent 40 years in the Republican Party, and I paid my dues,” he said. “I love them, but I’m 60 years old, and I’m just running my own thing now.”
Staff Writer Karissa Minn can be reached at 888-3576 or newsdesk@tvilletimes.com.
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