Lovingston – Nelson County, Virginia
Nelson County Sheriff David Brooks tells NCL Web edition that 20 year old, Erin Ezzyk, of Shipman is in jail without bond after he says she attempted to rob the Lovingston Food Lion armed with a knife on Tuesday of this week. “She stood in line and acted as though she was buying a bag of chips according to employees in the store. When she approached the clerk, she held a knife back as to indicate she might use it and demanded the clerk give her several hundred dollars in cash,” says Sheriff Brooks. According to Sheriff Brooks, another employee in the store saw what was taking place, elbowed Ezzyk out of the way and called deputies.
“We arrested her without incident after arriving at the store,” Sheriff Brooks continues.
Ezzyk is under arrest charged with attempted armed robbery. She is being held without bail.
Surprised they even had a deputy to respond, I hear they have lost another good one. What is it going to take for people to see what is going on on the hill in Lovingston. How many good officers have to go before the citizens stand up and PROTEST. IT looks like it will be a family run office the way things are going. The Sheriffs Brother, his cusens, and his brothers friends. Whats even more funny is you fire one for having a Girlfriend and being seperated, but you hire one who was fired for the same thing in a different agency. Protect your self residents of NELSON The Sheriff will not do it. He has said if they are a toad write them up, i they are my friend leave them alone
Chris, we certainly can’t speak to your specific claims, you seem to be well informed about the sheriff’s relatives. We do know that Kenny Brooks, the sheriff’s brother was an employee of the agency for 9 years before David Brooks ever started there in 1990, and the other Brooks at the office, Robby, is no relation whatsoever.
Having personally been an administrator in both a sheriff’s department and police department back in Tennessee long before moving to Virginia, I personally know a sheriff or police chief takes lots of criticism when assuming office as changes are made in the first term.
Sheriff Brooks deserves the benefit of the doubt as he makes changes in his first four years.
In reference to the letter from Chris I must agree and after reading same I did my research and guess what I found. Went back into the 1930’s of the records for Nelson County Sheriffs’ dept. and found that this year (2008-2009) our county has had the largest turnover of deputys’ to date. Now this makes me wonder whats wrong within our Sheriffs Dept today. It shows that after Sheriff Brooks took over as sheriff that all of our original officers has been fired and or left the dept to seek better jobs for some reason or another so I contacted four of the original officers over a period of two days and only one said he left on good terms. Three others stated that the office was like a carnival compaired to when Sheriff Brantly was in office and that they were respected and treated wonderful by the former sheriff but our new sheriff was quite a different case. Mr. Brooks brings in a new Captain with zero experence as a Captain (wifes relative) lets a very qulified investigator leave whom was reconized by the state as a very qualified officer, now allows another qualified investigator leave and appoints a lady with again zero exsperence to that office.
All of the former officers were well known and respected by the tax payers of this county and felt very comfortable with them as neighbors and friends and I for one would like to know the total truth as to why all these fine men and left our county and went to Amherst and Buckingham County.
Also I must admit that I cast my vote for sheriff Brooks feeling that he would do a great job for the citizens of Nelson but am starting to see a different Sheriff Brooks. He has forgotten all the fine folks that got out there and got him elected as though they never existed so in my mind he simple used us all to get what he wanted.
I would also desire to know the details behind the on going investigation thru the Virginia State Police concerning the past activities of Mr. Brooks and what individuals in the sheriff dept knows and have forwarded to the state police invistagator.
My suggestion would be that you as well as other reporters check deeper into whats going on within our sheriffs dept. and keep the taxpayers informed futher. One more thing that I must comment on is the manner that traffic is monitored on U.S. 29 by certain deputies which is considered unsafe. I see one certain office parking her vehicle in the south bound lane of 29 heading north at times. This is considered an unsafe practice by most state police officers as it is a big distraction to drivers whom are driving south and all at once see a vehicle setting on the edge of the highway faceing them in the wrong direction and had been reported cases of accidents and in one case in our state resulted in an elderly drivers death because she became confused, running into a medium stripe, hitting a covert resulting in her later death and she told the attendents that she saw the car and thought it was moving towards her in the wrong direction in her lane. SO this practice needs to stop at once and honestly the practice of running radar in any county belongs to our state troopers in my openion.
I do appreciate your dedicated work of reporting but suggest that you start digging a bit deeper so that you may inform the citizens of Nelson County better in the future.
I must say…you voted for him for Sheriff so deal with it. There are many reason’s why the deputies have left and gone to Amherst and Buckingham and i must say things are different and a lot better outside of Nelson. I’m sure if you just find one of the 4 deputies who have gone on to work for a better department they will tell you why they left. I perdict that the crime rate will continue to rise in Nelson Co. so be prepared to read many more articles like this one. All we can do is pray for our county and citizens.
I agree with NCL, Sheriff Brooks does deserve the benefit of the doubt. By the way, Ross, Sheriff Wood fired 2 deputies immediately upon taking office. I wasn’t sure if that showed in the research you did. I also agree with Krissy, I’m sure there are many reasons why the deputies have moved on and this happens everywhere. Buckingham lost several deputies in the last year as did Amherst. This is not unique to Nelson and I would bet if you ask those deputies that left Buckingham and Amherst, they would say they are happier in their current positions as well. My guess is they wouldn’t have left their jobs if they were happy. Given the current economic situation in this Country, I predict crime will rise everywhere. Just pick up a newspaper or watch the news. Again, not unique to Nelson.
Janie, I have to agree also with the current economic that crime will raise, but I have to admit Ross had some very good points also. Yes Sherrif Wood did fire 2 officers, but Sheriff Brooks has lost a lot more then just 2 officers. The officers who left Amherst County and came to Nelson were not the type of officers the Amhers Sheriff wanted, One was fired and the other, well not much I can say. If you really did your research you would find the officers who left the other agencies all had a very bad history or some sort of moral problems that the Sheriff did not want in his department. I can only comment on what I have seen in the past year. Sheriff Brooks is not the leader he vowed to be when he was running, he is out of the officer more then he is in, just call and ask to talk to him. Sheriif Wood, and Sheriff Brantley spent over 90% of thier tarm in the office or available to contacted. Now no one can compair to Sheriff Wood, it was his life and he was one of a kind. Sheriff Brantley was put into this job only because Sheriff wood Passed away very unexpectdley.
Sheriff Brooks has law suits pending from his former officers, he is being investagated by the Virginia State police, and has not proven to be able to do very much for the ones who work for him. If you really look at all of this, you will see he reports to you the second a (BIG) call happens, he seems more interested in getting his name in the news. He is not releasing the right information at times and not telling you the things that are going on in his administration. Ask him to respond to this, ask him to tell you why he is not working harder to keep the good men he had, and how many he has suspended for things that others are doing but since they are his “Buddies” he is not doing any thing about it. Ask him why he is not doing anything about the officers who get their tail chewed by the Judge for being late, or not showing up for court. Ask him to show you what he has done other then change the uniforms, the style of the car and get that trailor he had in one parade. Ask him to tell you what his administrative staff does. Ask him why he is not working more hours since he is 3 or more officers short. Do your job as a reporter and stand up to him and find out whats going on. If he is like any other supervisor he will tell you he will not comment on Adminstrative maters, but I think he is able to answer a few questions and get back to the Community that voted him in and let them know what is going on. I am not sure if my problem is with the Sheriff’s Office or this web paper for not reoporting what the facts are but only what you want to report because your his friend. And yes that is true, you defend him in a heart beat and slam most anyone who says anyting about him. Be a true REPORTER!
NCL briefly suspended this post while the allegations made by poster, Chris, were checked out.
Chris if you have proof of your accusations, you have failed to present hard facts here. You have made accusations with no proof, dates, investigators, etc. Furthermore, a new administration many times means many firings, changes, and new policies. Perhaps they were needed in this agency as well as an infusion of new blood. As we understand it, there is no investigation into the current sheriff’s administration. The is an ongoing court case that involves a former administration, and officers, but not the current sheriff. Furthermore, what you have stated here constitutes slander as your claims are unsubstantiated and untrue.
The office of Sheriff all over the United States, especially in small rural counties like Nelson is unfortunately politicized when it shouldn’t be. A prime example would be a local sheriff or board of supervisor member having to declare a political party while running for office. Such partisan politics have no place in a local elected office and impeded the Sheriff’s ability to serve.
Sheriff Brooks has been in office for hardly a year. Again as a former top administrator in both a county sheriff’s agency and police department, I can personally tell you this agency needed plenty of restructuring. And, much more remains to be done. It is expected that former employees and or relatives of those people would be displeased and critical when changes are made by a new administration.
Such loose accusations of a state police investigation have been thrown around here without any proof. Again, no such investigation is underway as we understand the facts.
Except in rare circumstances such as civil service agencies, in Virginia, like may other states, deputies work at the pleasure of the sheriff. Hiring and firing are totally at his discretion.
As you mentioned, we do know Sheriff Brooks personally. However, if solid factual proof of your accusations were presented we would share them. We have allowed a forum here for intelligent discussion, though the topics brought up here have absolutely nothing to do with the original post.
Chris,
While I respect your right to your opinion, I believe your postings should stick strictly to your opinion and not rumors. Because if we’re posting rumors, I would have to say many people in this community feel that several of the officers who have left Nelson also had bad character and lacked the morals expected of a deputy. Since I’m guessing you don’t work at the Sheriff’s Office (and neither do I), we don’t actually know any of the details of personnel comings and goings and we are both repeating what we’ve “heard”. In other words, simply rumors.
And where exactly is this proof of lawsuits and investigations. Typing it on this blog does not make it so. You should really know exactly what you’re talking about before posting such comments. How do you know he isn’t doing anything about officers who are not showing up for court? How do you know officers are not showing up for court or are late? How do you know how many hours the Sheriff is working? How do you know who has been suspended and for what? How do you know what calls the Sheriff responds to?
You are right, I may be wrong, but all I was doing her is asking NCL to follow up. Seems like any other comments are okay but mine are not. Ross has said the same thing that I siad read all the blogs, and then tell all of us to stop not just me. All I ask is NCL researches all of this, and see what you can find, be a reporter of the news. Don’t just ask the Sheriff, ask others.
NCL writes “Furthermore, what you have stated here constitutes slander as your claims are unsubstantiated and untrue” Can you prove they are un-true? Do your homeowrk thats all I ask. I am not making things up, I have a feeling if you check on some of this outside of the Sheriff’s Office you will find I have my facts correct.
Have you ever considered an open blog for things so they will not have to go on post like this?
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