MOULTRIE, Ga. — A longstanding disagreement over an investigation by the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office found its way before the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners Tuesday.

Lawrence Willis told commissioners the sheriff’s office had botched its investigation into the disappearance of his cattle and urged them to suspend the sheriff and the investigator in charge of his case.

After Willis spoke, Sheriff Rod Howell gave a passionate defense of his department.

Willis said his business partner was watching 120 head of cattle near Norman Park. The cattle, which he said were worth $70,000, disappeared.

“There was one way in and one way out,” he said, which led him to suspect his business partner of theft.

After a two-year investigation, the sheriff’s department hasn’t filed any charges, and Willis said the statute of limitations has been reached so that investigators won’t be able to pursue the case further.

“[Investigator] Austin Cannon admitted he should have done better,” Willis said. “I have that on tape. … Sheriff Rod Howell and Austin Cannon should be relieved of their duties for one week without pay.”

When Willis had finished, an agitated Howell asked the board if he could respond, and commissioners agreed. He turned to Willis. 

“Mr. Willis, who actually owned the cows?” he asked. After a pause in which he didn’t get an answer, he repeated, “Who owned the cows?” Then a third time, “Who owned the cows?”

Howell said the cattle were actually owned by Southern Valley, an agricultural business owned by Kent Hamilton. Hamilton had hired Willis and his partner to take care of the animals.

In an interview on Wednesday, Howell said the arrangement had been going on for about a year when Hamilton started talking about selling some of the cattle. Suddenly Willis discovered all the cattle were gone, Howell said.

Willis is not the victim in the case, Howell said; Hamilton is.

Howell said the investigation was plagued by poor or non-existent record-keeping. When the report was initially filed, Willis said 30 cows were missing. Later that number was 40, and another time it was 60. 

“No one can pinpoint how many cows are missing,” Howell said.

He said the cattle were supposed to be kept on two farms but they were scattered among at least four, including Willis’s partner’s farm, where the partner admitted taking six sick cows he was trying to nurse back to health. Those cows ran off when Hurricane Michael damaged the fence of their enclosure and haven’t been seen since.

At one of the farms, Cannon found 10 dead cows, Howell said. He speculated that if that many had died at each of the four farms, it would account for all the missing cattle by some of the counts.

Commissioner Paul Nagy asked the sheriff what Hamilton thought about the investigation, and Howell said he accepted that the sheriff’s office had done all it could.

“We’ve done our job,” Howell said.

The commissioners made no response to Willis’s request to censure the officers.

In other action Tuesday, the board:

• Conducted a public hearing on the proposed budget. No one spoke. Commissioners will vote on the $25 million budget at their June 21 meeting.

• Voted to close Presley Suber Road following a public hearing. If the county built the dirt road by way of an easement from the original landowners, the land will revert back to whoever owns the adjacent land now, county attorney Lester Castellow said. In the unlikely event the land was actually deeded to the county, the county will have to dispose of it like any other property.

• Recognized Colquitt County High School’s 2021-22 STAR Student, Case Gregory, with a proclamation.

• Nominated three people to the Colquitt County Hospital Authority — Joe Baker, Cheryl Friedlander and Cynthia Harrison. The authority itself will select one of the three at its next meeting to replace departing member Kirk Friedlander.

• Approved a supplemental agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation that will allow Scruggs Concrete additional time to finish the resurfacing of a runway at the Moultrie Municipal Airport. The City of Moultrie and the Moultrie-Colquitt County Airport Authority are also parties to the contract. Scruggs has been unable to get materials needed for the project, County Administrator Chas Cannon said.

• Agreed to a 6.9% increase in the cost of meals served at the county jail and county prison. Trinity Services Group serves both facilities under the same contract and requested the rate hike due to increases in labor and supply costs.

• Agreed to continue housing state Department of Corrections inmates at a rate of $22 per inmate per day. The agreement must be re-considered annually, and this year’s contract is identical to last year’s, Cannon said.

• Agreed to the continued rental of county facilities by the state Department of Veterans Services, which uses an office at the County Courthouse Annex at a rate of $316.67 per month; the state Department of Family and Children Services, which uses a building on North Main Street at a rate of $14,451 per month; and the state Department of Human Services’ Child Support Services office, which uses part of the DFCS building at a rate of $3,613 per month.

• Agreed to the purchase of two sideloader garbage trucks from Worldwide at a cost of $351,820 each. With a two-year purchase agreement, the company offers a $223,000 buyback. The county expects to pay for the trucks out of the 2023-24 budget (which will start July 1 of next year), but commissioners had to approve the purchase this early to be on the company’s waiting list. 

• Declared a 2001 E350 bus and three cardboard balers to be surplus that the county will now try to sell.