A Summerville man who says he is running in the Republican Primary for sheriff says that charges that were brought against him in March of last year involving an altercation with a school bus driver were “exaggerated”.  Edwin Lee Raughton told the local newspaper last week that Chattooga County Chief Deputy Kevin Woods couldn’t charge him with a felony because “there wasn’t enough evidence”.

Raughton was accused of having the profanity-laced altercation with a bus driver with children on the bus.  Raughton said that he never brandished a weapon, although he admits to telling the bus driver that he “better be bullet-proof”.

Raughton was approved to run as a Republican candidate by the Chattooga County Republican Party’s vetting committee earlier this month.  The committee has defended their actions saying their only purpose was to determine if candidates are “true Republicans” and conservative enough to put before the voters of the county.

State Court Judge Jon Dennis found Raughton guilty of disorderly conduct last year and denied Raughton’s motion for a jury trial.

Raughton says that the sheriff’s department – and the local school system’s bus barn – need reform.  He told the local paper that voters deserve a choice in elections.