NAUGATUCK, W.Va. — A Logan County woman has been charged for allegedly shoving Mingo County Sheriff Joe Smith during a tense situation at a high school basketball game.
It all began near the end of a game between rivals Tug Valley and Logan on Saturday. The tense game boiled over after a foul call near the end of the fourth period cleared the benches.
Sheriff Smith was attending the game in plain clothes with his family, and only one uniformed deputy was working the game, so the sheriff came out of the stands to help restore order.
At one point, a Tug Valley student and an adult Logan fan began screaming at each other across the court, and Sheriff Smith told the Tug Valley student to leave. He then turned his attention to the Logan woman, when another woman “came out of nowhere” and began shoving him in the chest.
Sheriff Smith then gave the woman, identified as Michelle Taylor Napier, 24, of Logan, a business card and told her to contact his office Monday to pick up a citation for misdemeanor charges of battery and disorderly conduct.
Napier reportedly told the sheriff she is the sister-in-law of the Logan woman involved in the shouting match with the Tug Valley student.
Smith said he did not arrest her on the spot because doing so would have meant he would have had to leave to take her to jail, leaving only one deputy to contend with an explosive situation.
“It would have definitely gotten out of control,” Smith told Mountain Top News.
Smith also said Napier could have faced more serious charges for assaulting an officer, but he gave her the benefit of the doubt that she didn’t know he was the sheriff, since he was in plain clothes.
