Questions Remain for Botetourt County After Former Chief Arrested for Rape

Hey there readers…yeah, both of you. This is The Fire Critic guest posting on IronFiremen.com. In a recent court appearance, the Judge asked Captain Wines to refrain from posting about now former Buchanan VFD Chief Billy Joe Carter. Willie is well known as “by the book Wines” so I have put this post together to keep you up to speed.

You see, Willie’s arch enemy; Billy Joe Carter is back in the news. This time, he’s been arrested on charges of rape. He’s being held without bond in the Botetourt County jail. He’s scheduled for a hearing on November 14th.

Related links HERE, HERE and HERE .

If you follow Captain Wines (Ironfiremen.com) at all then you’ll know the history between the two.

Carter was injured on the scene of a Botetourt County fire in early January 2012. Something caught Willie’s eye and he dug into the situation a little deeper. I don’t think he expected to find everything he did.

What he uncovered was a mess. The sad thing was that it went deeper than Chief Billy Joe Carter. It was actually deeper than The Buchanan VFD and, deeper than Botetourt County’s Department of Emergency Services.

Billy Joe Carter is (and was at the time) a convicted felon. He’s not the only one operating in Botetourt County as an Emergency responder. Willie took a hard stance against convicted felons serving in fire and / or EMS agencies and sought input from his followers.

The Media caught on and it turned into quite the show. Billy Joe Carter was self destructing and looked as if he would take the BVFD with him. You wouldn’t believe some of the things Carter said and did. Willie summed it up fairly well in his postings, check the links below

It got so bad that one of our local newspapers even called for Chief Carter’s resignation. The Editorial said “An asbestos suit can’t protect Billy Joe Carter from self conflagration ignited by his heated rhetoric and actions.” 

It also said “Buchanan’s fire chief can quell the department’s public relations crisis with one action: his resignation.”

Read Step Down, Billy Joe Carter

Of course all the attention only fired Billy Joe up more. In July, he threatened not only Willie but his family. It was bad enough that Willie pressed charges. 

It all culminated in these latest charges. It looks like Mr. Carter will be behind bars for a long time. He should be. It also appears Captain Wines was right. This is the exact behavior and outcome Willie warned  about.

It was never 100% about Billy Joe Carter as far as Willie was concerned. It was more so about the liability that Botetourt County was accepting in allowing him to serve. The interesting thing is that Carter was not the only convicted Felon serving in Botetourt County. There are others serving throughout the County still today, some even as Chief.

Carr Boyd, Botetourt’s Director of Emergency Services since March 2012 had his hands full when he accepted the position . It seemed as though he had a good grasp on the Buchanan “issues” but also had his hands somewhat tied due to the timing of his appointment.

Billy Joe Carter took care of himself and now, the Buchanan VFD has voted to relinquish their status as an independent origination and turn control of the Department over to Botetourt County. Boyd will appoint a Volunteer Captain who in turn will appoint 2 Lieutenants. There will no longer be a volunteer Chief’s position. “Botetourt County’s Department of Emergency Services will assume responsibility for managing the Buchanan department’s finances and operations”.

Buchanan volunteer firefighters get new management: Botetourt County

It will be interesting to see if Boyd and Botetourt County continue the clean up of their system beyond Buchanan or if they’ll allow the remaining convicted felons within their system to continue serving. Willie said it best when he said “It’s like letting a fox in the hen house”. What if Carter had been on a call when accused of and charged with rape? Was he “on duty” when he made those previous threats? If so, could Botetourt County be held liable?

How many more Billy Joe Carters can Botetourt County afford?

Well I think I have covered it pretty well. I better get back to FireCritic.com before my readers start thinking Willie and I are the same person

– The Fire Critic