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By Monty Tayloe
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
The week long search for the fugitive felon Ira Wayne Cloniger has exposed the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office to criticism in some quarters.
Many property owners with homes near the search area felt inadequately informed by the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office.
“A cop in a situation where the public is compromised has a responsibility,” said Keir Whitson, whose vacant weekend home may have been a temporary hiding place for fugitive Ira Wayne Cloniger during his week long chase. “They did a great job catching the guy, but I didn’t hear from them until a swat team had surrounded my house. That’s weird,” added Whitson, whose home is less than two miles “as the crow flies” from the house where Cloniger is alleged to have killed Edgar Fletcher Jr.
“I think they did what they needed to do with what they had,” said County Administrator John McCarthy of the RCSO.
After the details of Cloniger’s crime became known the morning of July 2 to the RCSO, there was a very visible police presence on Gid Brown Hollow Road. Some citizens have said that when they asked officers in the area what was going on , they received little to no information, and were not made aware that there was a potentially dangerous felon loose in the surrounding area.
Sheriff Sherertz has said that individual officers are generally not empowered to provide the public with details of an ongoing investigation in order to protect evidence and sensitive information. The Sheriff himself generally handles disseminating information to the press and decides what information will be available to the public. This standard procedure may have prevented the public from learning the details of Cloniger’s threat in the early stages of the investigation. According to Sheriff Sherertz, by Sunday evening dispatchers at the RCSO were tasked to call surrounding property owners and inform them of the situation. However, several property owners on nearby Harris Hollow Road, some of them just a few miles from the epicenter of the manhunt, were not informed of the danger. According to Harris Hollow resident Whitson, the RCSO made no attempt to contact him until Cloniger
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