A former sheriff of Marshall County — where the current sheriff and a detective revealed they have for years seized livestock without warrants — denied the sheriff’s claims that imply previous administrations had done similar things in the past.
Norman Dalton, who was Marshall County’s sheriff from 2010 to 2014, said he was “shocked” at the amount of animals seized by the office since Sheriff Billy Lamb took over in 2014. Records filed in discovery in a lawsuit show the office seized animals from at least 10 people from 2014 to 2019, none with a seizure warrant. Detective Tony Nichols handled all the animal cruelty cases, Lamb said in a deposition in the same lawsuit.
During that deposition, Lamb agreed when asked by prosecutors if it was consistent with his 38 years of experience in the sheriff’s office that officers don’t get warrants before conducting searches or seizures related to animal cruelty investigations. Lamb also said that the office could expect to make a profit after seizing and selling the animals in some cases.
Dalton said that wasn’t true during his tenure or the sheriff's before him, Les Helton. Helton was sheriff from 1990 to 2010 and died in 2014.
“It appeared that he was trying to insinuate that we’d been picking up cattle all these years and making a profit through the court,” Dalton said in an interview in late January. “That’s the way I understood it, and that’s not true.”
Dalton said that throughout his tenure, he remembers just two instances when animals were seized. Records show that in 2013, Nichols seized seven horses from a woman in Marshall County. Dalton also recalled officers seizing dogs that were in poor health from a property.
Dalton explained how he believes an animal cruelty investigation should be handled. First, he said, it is unusual that just one detective — Nichols in this case — has handled all such cases for the sheriff’s office. The Marshall County Sheriff’s Office has three detectives, who are assigned cases on a rolling basis, Dalton explained.
Dalton also said officers should obtain seizure warrants every time they seize animals unless the owners consent to relinquishing their property.
“Every time you seize an animal, they should have had a warrant,” Dalton said. "They done wrong."
Here’s how the process should go, Dalton said. After the sheriff’s office receives a complaint about mistreated animals, an officer should first visit the owner and talk to them. If the office receives more complaints, an officer should return to the property with a veterinarian to assess the animals. That information should then be taken to a judge to obtain a seizure warrant. If at any point the owner doesn’t give officers permission to enter the property, they need to get a search warrant, Dalton said.
Dalton said “never should Marshall County make a profit” from livestock seizure.
“You’re not in it for profit,” Dalton said.
Dalton also said he didn’t see why officers would seize healthy animals from the same herd. In 2018, Nichols seized Matthew and Julie Hopkins’ 50 cattle, many of which were in good condition. Hopkins sued and in 2023 was awarded nearly $500,000 after a jury trial.
After the animals were seized, they were held on the property of a Marshall County farmer whom Nichols selected because “he knew him,” according to Lamb's deposition. The sheriff’s office paid that farmer tens of thousands of dollars.
By doing so, Nichols entered the county into a binding verbal financial agreement. Lamb said no other officers have the authority to do that.
Dalton found that arrangement troubling.
“You got too many chances for kickbacks there,” Dalton said. “I wouldn’t put up with that.”
In 2015, Nichols seized eight horses from Darlene Wood, who said she raised Tennessee walking horses. She did this to supplement her husband’s income.
Nichols first contacted her on March 31, 2015. On April 6, she returned from the doctor to find officers loading her horses onto a trailer on her property. She said she did not consent to the seizure and records do not indicate that officers had obtained a seizure warrant.
“At no point in time did Nichols show me one piece of paper,” Wood said.
Wood was later convicted of one count of animal cruelty.
Nichols did not respond to a request for comment. Several messages were left with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office seeking comment.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.
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