Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510120008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Scott Beard makes his living as a painting contractor, but the independent candidate for Botetourt County sheriff is no newcomer to law enforcement.
He's been a Roanoke County deputy and worked for the Buchanan police department. He even married a cop. And then there's the time he was cited for bravery.
Teresa Beard was accompanying her husband one cold, stormy night in January 1991, when they stopped in the Vinton Police Department. They heard a call about a car being swept off the Walnut Avenue bridge into Tinker Creek.
The Beards rushed toward the scene, where Scott Beard saw firefighter Roger Cupp bobbing in the water near a half-submerged car. Beard could see Tina Marie Altis, 31, of Stewartsville struggling to get free.
Cupp yelled that he needed something to break the car's windows.
Vinton police officer Andy Corbin tried to fight back the current and get to the car with his metal flashlight. The rampaging stream was too swift and pushed him past the car.
Beard was running to assist when he heard his wife yelling.
"Don't get in the water," she said.
Beard figured that the only way he could get to Cupp and the car was to jump in the water upstream and let it carry him to the car. He had a metal leash from his police dog that he thought could break the window.
He jumped into the water, which pushed him toward the car. When he got there the car suddenly sank and drowned Altis.
Corbin, who had wrestled free from the current, grabbed Beard as he was rushing downstream. Soaked and cold, they were taken to the hospital.
"It was depressing to watch that take place," Beard says. "I was just sorry I couldn't get there."
Beard, Corbin and Cupp were later cited for bravery by the Vinton Town Council.
In December 1991, Beard left the Roanoke County position to take the job as Buchanan police officer. He had hoped the department would grow, but it didn't and he left 15 months later.
Now, he makes a living as a painting contractor.
He says he hopes that his next job change will be to become sheriff.
"I see this as a pivotal election," he says. "I think I would make a good sheriff."
The changes that Beard envisions would be more in the area of style than substance.
He said that Kelly is too tied to his administrative function to travel around the county talking to folks.
"I don't see the deputies out in the neighborhood like I did when I was growing up," he says.
Beard, 32, got a bird's-eye view of Botetourt County law enforcement as a youngster in Buchanan.
His father, Dick, served as the town's sergeant, an animal control officer and road deputy for the Botetourt County Sheriff's Department.
Dick Beard would sometimes take his son for rides in the police car. He would sometimes let Scott blow the siren or pretend that he was talking on the radio.
After graduating from James River High School, Beard took a construction job near the Marine base in Quantico. He stayed there until his grandmother, Mary Beard, who was more like his mother, died.
Beard was troubled by the fact that he wasn't in Buchanan at the time to be near her at her death. He made a decision then to move back so he would never be far from his family again.
After working in animal control, in hardware and then in animal control again, Beard applied for a job as a Roanoke County deputy.
About the same time, Beard was beginning to notice a woman officer, who had a black eye from a scrap with an uncooperative suspect.
"She ran into a big husky guy, who wanted to fight," Beard says.
Two years later, Beard and Teresa Turpin were married.
Beard stayed on at the sheriff's department through the regime of Sheriff Mike Kavanaugh and during the changeover from a sheriff's department to police department. During that time, Beard was named president of his police academy class and finished an Associate of Criminal Justice degree at Virginia Western with magna cum laude honors.
He says his political ambitions go no further than the Botetourt County line.
"This is where I want to be," he says. "Home is here in Botetourt County.
He challenges the conventional political wisdom that Sheriff Reed Kelly is just too tough to beat.
"I like to get out and talk to people," he says.
And he doesn't seem to be intimidated by his role as underdog.
"Well, I hung in here this far, haven't I?" he points out.
Beard contends that his challenge to Kelly is good for the county.
"For 20 to 30 years, we haven't had a political process in Botetourt County," he says. "I have an obligation to open the process up."
It's not that Beard hasn't had reason to be discouraged. He put out feelers about getting the Republican Party's nomination, but was told there would be some opposition to that bid, because many Republican leaders believe Kelly is unbeatable.
But Beard wasn't listening to the political powers. His independent run for the sheriff's office was fueled by citizens who said they would like to see an alternative to Kelly.
"People tell me we need a change," Beard says.
SCOTT BEARD
Age: 32
Family: Married, two children
Employment: Painting contractor
Hobbies: Hunting, fishing and farming
Experience: Eight years experience in various law enforcement jobs. Once served as Buchanan police chief.
Platform: More personal, community-based policing.
Keywords:
POLITICS PROFILE
by CNB