A deputy with the Lamar County Sheriff’s office has been charged with stalking and tampering with evidence after allegedly repeatedly messaging, harassing and threatening a woman over social media and deleting the evidence from his cell phone.
According to documents filed October 25 in Lamar County Circuit Court, an arrest warrant was issued for deputy Mike Byrd in September after the court found that between August 26 and September 23, Byrd improperly used his position as an officer to stalk the alleged victim and proceeded to threaten and intimidate her.
“Byrd … repeatedly messaged the alleged victim via iMessage, Facebook and Snapchat to inquire as to her location, activities, and engage in conversation of a sexual nature while carrying out his official duties as a Lamar County sheriff’s deputy,” the document states. “(Byrd) repeatedly appeared outside the alleged victim’s home and place of work while on duty as a law enforcement officer at the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office and would send her pictures of herself or her car while she was at home or elsewhere.
“(Byrd) ‘blue-lighted’ the alleged victim without cause while on duty and implied in their conversations that he would take her to jail if she angered or did not cooperate with him. (Byrd) admitted to an Internal Affairs investigator that he engaged in these behaviors. Therefore, the evidence before the court supports that (Byrd) purposefully engaged in a course of conduct directed at the alleged victim, and made credible threats he knew, or should have known, would cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety.”
According to the filing, the alleged victim made a 911 call on August 26 to the sheriff’s office regarding a suicidal episode by her brother. After that incident was handled, Byrd – who was a responding officer at the scene – then allegedly sent the victim a Facebook message, while he was on duty, asking the victim for her contact information under the pretext of making an incident report.
The filing goes on to state that once Byrd had the victim’s number, he continued to contact her via phone call, iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat while on duty. The alleged victim stated that Byrd told her he would contact her while he was on duty so his wife would be unaware of the conversations.
“(Byrd) sent her pictures from his sheriff’s vehicle of himself, her house, her car in the yard of her home, and her workplace,” the filing states. “He would often sit in the parking lot of her employment while she was working, or at or near the neighboring church and message her.
“The alleged victim testified that she was scared not to respond because (Byrd) would quickly take offense and make remarks about taking her or others to jail.”
On September 15, the alleged victim met with Lamar County deputies Mike Purvis and Jason Alexander, who turned the investigation over to Internal Affairs.
The alleged victim testified that on September 18, Byrd appeared at her place of employment while he was on duty, and sat in his squad car in the business’s parking lot. Once her employer left the building, Byrd allegedly drove around the business, backed up and entered the drive-through, at which point the victim hid in the bathroom and called her sister-in-law, who showed up at the store for support.
“While she was hiding in the bathroom, (Byrd) began messaging the alleged victim on Snapchat,” the filing states. “He pulled up through the drive-through window and used the siren on his vehicle to make a loud noise, which scared the alleged victim.
“She testified that she did not know why he was there and was scared because she had made a complaint against him a few days prior. She thought he had been warned not to contact her and believed he might be there to threaten or otherwise retaliate against her.”
The next day, Captain Richard Cox from Internal Affairs met with the alleged victim, at which point a formal complaint was filed against Byrd.
“Captain Cox testified he told the alleged victim that he did not see that (Byrd) had committed a crime, but allowed her to sign an affidavit anyway to charge (Byrd) with stalking,” the filing states. “(Byrd) confessed to Captain Cox that he was guilty of contacting the alleged victim and engaging in sexual conversations.
“With the knowledge of Captain Cox, (Byrd) deleted the alleged victim’s contact information on his phone and social media apps, and wiped clean all the messages off his cell phone, thereby destroying all evidence of his crimes.”
The court has remanded the case to Lamar County Justice Court for issuance of the arrest warrant.
“The alleged victim previously agreed to turn over her phone and take a polygraph test,” the filing states. “Because (Byrd) has attempted to destroy evidence on his phone, the alleged victim should preserve any evidence on her phone, as she may be required to turn over her phone for extraction of evidence in the future.”
