WATAUGA COUNTY SHERIFF

NOTE: You may vote for one. Candidates are presented below in the order they appear on your ballot. All of my research sources and links for these candidates are presented after and below the candidate profiles.

Reason for my Endorsement:

The Sheriff of Watauga County does considerably more than investigate crimes and make arrests. The office patrols the county, operates the county detention center and is responsible for people held there. And in a mountain community like Watauga, the sheriff and deputies are often among the people who arrive when somebody is having one of the worst days of his or her life. Church brings 26 years in law enforcement to the table. Hagaman brings twenty years of an actual record as sheriff. I admit to knowing Hagaman personally for many years and believe he is a fine Sheriff. I don’t see a reason to replace him.

DARIN CHURCH (Republican)

Darin Church for Watauga County Sheriff

Church is a Watauga County native with 26 years of law-enforcement experience. He began his career with Watauga Medical Center Hospital Police and later served with the Blowing Rock Police Department, retiring in December 2024 as Lieutenant of Investigations. His experience includes patrol, criminal investigations, evidence management, administration and training. He also spent more than 20 years in the fire service and served as a fire chief.

Church holds an associate degree in Criminal Justice from Wilkes Community College, an Advanced Law Enforcement Certification and executive-level training through North Carolina State University and FBI-LEEDA. He has also served as a law-enforcement instructor.

His campaign emphasizes leadership, training, professionalism, accountability and community trust. Church says a Sheriff’s Office should be a trusted community partner and promises greater community outreach and transparency while supporting deputies and holding them to high professional standards. That amounts to an implicit criticism of the incumbent administration, although Church’s published campaign material is considerably clearer about the principles he wants to bring to the office than about any specific failures he believes require replacing Hagaman.

Church has never run a sheriff’s office or detention center, so we don’t have an administrative record there to examine. His long law-enforcement and emergency services career does, however, give him experience in both everyday policing and management.

LEN “LD” HAGAMAN JR. (Democrat)

Watauga County Sheriff Department

Hagaman has has twenty years of an actual record as sheriff. First elected in 2006, Hagaman had previously worked as a Watauga County deputy and with the Boone Police Department in patrol, juvenile work, crime prevention, investigations, supervision and administration. He holds an Advanced Law Enforcement Certificate and has taught law enforcement and public administration courses.

His tenure includes major criminal investigations, including the resolution of the 1972 Durham family triple homicide. When investigators finally identified the people believed responsible fifty years later, a member of the Durham family specifically credited Hagaman with remaining involved and committed to obtaining closure for the family.

But perhaps a better window into the kind of Sheriff’s Office Hagaman has run is what happens after somebody has been arrested. In 2018, his office undertook a study of people repeatedly cycling through the Watauga County Detention Center and looked at what might help keep them from returning. That work led to Recovery on the Inside, a program housed in the jail that connects incarcerated people with substance abuse and mental health treatment, case management, peer support and planning for treatment and services after release. The Sheriff’s Office later partnered with public-health and restorative justice organizations on diversion programs intended to address addiction outside the traditional arrest-jail-release-arrest cycle. The detention center also maintains scheduled weekend visitation and systems allowing families to communicate with and provide commissary funds for people being held there.

Hagaman’s tenure has also included extraordinary tragedy. In 2021, Sgt. Chris Ward and K-9 Deputy Logan Fox were killed responding to a welfare check. At their funeral, Hagaman told their families that the department’s responsibility to them would continue long after the ceremony was over.