Arrest ordered for court no-show

Published 7:39 pm Thursday, October 17, 2013

Sarah Waller

Sarah Waller

 

Law enforcement is searching for the woman who assaulted Sheriff Alan Jordan last December after she failed to appear in court.

The assault case was scheduled to be heard Thursday, but when Sarah Worthy Waller didn’t show, Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons Jr. issued an order for her arrest, revoked Waller’s bond and ordered that she be held without bond when she is arrested. Sermons also specified that no judge or judicial official set bond for Waller without consultation with him.

Waller was arrested by Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Dec. 3, 2012, during a domestic incident at a home on Warren Place in Washington. Initially, she was charged with simple assault of the two men also at the residence, but according to officials, Waller became belligerent, which led to an additional charge of resisting arrest.

It was after she had been taken downtown, and while the magistrate at the time, Jasper Mills, was reading charges the against Waller, that she became irate and aggressive, Jordan said during an interview last year. Mills held Waller in contempt of court.

On the way to the jail from the magistrates’ office, the situation further deteriorated when Waller kicked Jordan and spit on him when officers attempted to restrain her, according to reports.

“In our opinion, she was very intoxicated or impaired,” Maj. Kenneth Watson, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said after the incident. “She got more and more violent as they tried to move her to the restraint chair.”

Waller got an automatic five days in jail for the contempt charge and Jordan had to get tested for HIV, hepatitis and other blood-born diseases, which is standard operating procedure for any officer who has come contact with another person’s blood or saliva while on duty.

In addition to the simple assault and resisting arrest charges, Waller was also hit with two felonies: malicious conduct by a prisoner and assault with physical injury to a law enforcement officer.

According to court officials, Waller knew she was scheduled to appear Thursday. She was not home when deputies checked at her residence after the arrest order was issued.