South Carolina Mayor Jim Preacher Pulled Over By Trooper, Then Pulls Over Trooper
When a South Carolina state trooper pulled over a small town mayor for speeding, that mayor gave the cop a taste of his own medicine.
Norway Mayor Jim Preacher is being probed by the state after he was pulled over for speeding by a state trooper on Jan. 18 -- and then pulled rank by pulling over the same trooper just minutes later, according to The Times and Democrat.
Preacher doesn't deny that he was cruising at 70 mph in a 55 mph zone at about 7 p.m., but now a South Carolina law enforcement agency is trying to figure out whether the mayor had any authority to then pull over the very same officer and try to issue him a summons -- a request that the trooper refused.
After a bit of hesitation, and a look at the trooper's license and registration, Preacher let him go.
Mayors don't often fire up their red and blues to pull over a state trooper, but Preacher said he was acting within his rights as Norway's chief constable. Plus, the mercenary mayor said that he was trying to pull over a vehicle he believed to have been involved in a recent robbery attempt, not a cop, according to CBS News.
It's yet unclear whether the mayor routinely makes traffic stops -- or tries to single-handedly take down burglary suspects -- but the "chief constable" is sticking to his guns on this one.
"Nobody knows that Norway has a [chief constable]," which is why the confusion arose with the state trooper, Preacher told the South Carolina paper.
He told the paper that he might have "some makeup work to do" in terms of completely certifying himself to be a constable, but that the state had previously given him a "clear status" to act as law enforcement.
The now-famous mayor of Norway -- a small town with a population of just over 360 -- was in the local headlines earlier this year when cops allege that he broke into his own town hall through a window because he lost his keys, according to The Post and Courier.
The chubby Preacher said he didn't climb in himself, but employed the help of a smaller man to get inside and unlock the door. The paper also reports that a former mayor called for burglary charges to be brought against Preacher.
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The Huffington Post Andy Campbell First Posted: 01/25/2012 12:08 pm Updated: 01/25/2012 12:18 pm