Kincaid farmer Arlyn Briggs, a candidate for governor, faces a sentence of 5 to 17 months in jail after he was arrested this week for suspicion of making a criminal threat against law enforcement.
Briggs, 64, was arrested while in Iola Wednesday afternoon on a warrant issued a day earlier in Anderson County.
On top of the criminal case against him — a level 9 felony — Briggs also must appear to respond to a protection from stalking charge filed by former Anderson County sheriff’s deputy David Harper-Head.
First appearances in the matters are set for later this month in Anderson County District Court.
Briggs sat down for an interview with the Register in a unique setting — the cab of his brother’s pickup while parked along a county road in rural Allen County — to discuss the allegations against him.
The unusual venue was necessary because Briggs was helping his brother plant soybeans Wednesday.
“I’m trying to help be transparent,” Briggs said. “There are things that are written about me that are not the whole story. I’m still trying to sort through this.”
The criminal threat stems from a voicemail message Briggs left with members of the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department on June 9 in which he was quoted as saying “so let the fun begin … Sheriff (Vernon) Valentine and deputies … specifically Harper-Head … we will get you to where you don’t like it … and you will be tracked … and hunted down like an animal.”
Briggs admitted to the Register he left the voice mail in question, and while he has some questions about specific wording — he’s asked for the county to release the recording — he has no intention of harming anyone.
And, Briggs counters, the complaint leaves out important context to his contentious relationship with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department.
“What I meant to say is I will get you where it hurts,” Briggs told the Register. “I was speaking metaphorically. People say I’m a wordsmith. I know how to use language.”
Harper-Head’s petition in his protection from stalking case also refers to the voicemail, as well as a similar phone call Briggs made to a 911 dispatcher earlier this month, threatening to “shoot any officer who came onto (Briggs’) property.”
Harper-Head’s petition also referred to other conversations between Briggs and other law enforcement personnel in which Briggs reportedly said he owned an Uzi submachine gun and “multiple AR-style rifles.” Harper-Head’s petition also refers to a call by Briggs which he believed was a ruse to ambush responding officers.
Briggs said the 911 call was the culmination of a saga between law officers and a young man who has been in and out of jail on multiple occasions, mostly for drug-related crimes.
Briggs explained his interest in the case was a matter of helping somebody down on his luck.
“I try to help people and get them straightened out,” Briggs said. “He’s the son of my best friend I grew up with and went to church with and have known for 64 years.
