A view from behind the badge with Chief Deputy Ray Whited

Meade County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Ray Whited

And now for the rest of the story: Part 1

For most of October 17, 2023, it was a business-as-usual kind of day at the Meade County Courthouse. The final hour of business that day, however, would stir up a drama storm that would lead to the arrest of an out-of-town couple, bring an unforeseen call-flooding barrage upon the courthouse that would unleash death threats and stifle business for weeks, and eventually leave egg on the face of two news reporting agencies, as they and some of Meade County learned a lesson that many communities across this country are learning the hard way in this digital world in which we live — just because someone presents a video snippet doesn’t mean that it can be taken as absolute. It needs to be highly vetted for the accuracy of claims and whether or not the source is reliable before their version of an event is portrayed as news, little alone the authority on the truth of a matter. After all, anyone in the business of journalism, photography and videography can attest to how easily the reality of an event can be skewed, especially by someone without integrity, by simply changing the angle or editing/cropping out some of the content and/or context of an event.

Meade County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ray Whited recently set down for an exclusive interview with WMMG to discuss the missing context and fallout that came from the highly edited videos that Chris Reiter and Tiffany Napier, the Lanesville, IN couple taken into custody that day, released after he arrested back in October for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. In those videos, they claimed to have been assaulted by Whited and that their rights were violated. The editor of the local paper immediately jumped on board with the couple, going so far as concluding that Whited and the Sheriff’s Office were an embarrassment to all of Meade County, without talking once to anyone from the agency about what transpired that day. WDRB News in Louisville also shared a video made by the infamous couple that showed Whited’s department photo with the slanderous words “Woman Beater” written beside it, without talking to anyone from the agency about the events that transpired that day.

While many were swept up in the social media storm that spun up from the couple’s campaign against the Chief Deputy and multiple other Meade County government agencies, many others took a more measured approach to their inflammatory claims. With the Meade County Sheriff’s Office initially being unable to comment due to the ongoing investigation (which is standard procedure everywhere in situations such as this), the couple’s version of the story alone just wasn’t passing the smell test from the get-go for many, while others ran wild with their unvetted accusations. Now that the dust has settled, a closer examination of all the facts paints a much different picture than the one presented by Reiter and Napier, claiming an out-of-control officer attacked them and violated their rights without provocation or cause. Well, Meade County, in the famous words of the late Paul Harvey, it's time now for the rest of the story.

Chief Deputy Ray Whited says he was at his desk that afternoon when one of the ladies from the front office of the Sheriff’s Department came back to tell him that there were a couple of people at the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office who were giving the ladies in that office a hard time (video would verify this fact, showing Reiter and Napier calling the clerk’s “Karens” and verbally accosting them prior to Chief Deputy Whited’s arrival). Whited and bailiff/office manager Pam Knott walked down to the clerk’s office and immediately came into contact with Reiter, as Napier was in the hallway at that point talking to her Facebook Live viewers on her recording device. According to Whited, he introduced himself, shook Reiter’s hand and inquired what was going on.

“The deputy circuit clerks, they’re scared to death back there. They’ve (Reiter and Napier) really got them upset because evidently, from what I’ve been told, they were giving the staff a pretty hard time even before I got up there,” Whited explained. “So, I just told the couple, well once you’ve received your documents, you all are free to go.”

Whited says Reiter responded by saying “What?”, to which Whited repeated himself. At that point, Reiter stated he wasn’t going anywhere until the staff explained everything he wanted to know. This of course is not part of the clerk’s job, and there is even a sign that clearly explains this as soon as a person enters the office. After asking the couple to explain what the clerk’s job description was since they didn’t appear to know what they were demanding of the office, Whited said Reiter mouthed off a couple more things and again refused to get his paperwork and leave, to which Whited said, “Well OK, let's go to jail.”

After handcuffing Reiter, Whited went to handcuff Napier who was screaming obscenities towards Knott and Whited. It is at that point her camera falls to the floor, and the narrative becomes terribly skewed by the couple’s video release because you can only hear what’s going on after that point.

“They added in there what they wanted from the time their camera went black until the end, instead of what’s actually going on. When she’s screaming get your hands off me, and he’s hollering help and that I had her down on the ground and was beating her and all that stuff, she never once hit the ground. Never once,” Whited said. “The video from the clerk’s camera shows it all and totally contradicts them.”

In that video from the clerk’s office, it is only Reiter and Napier who are getting physical. While handcuffed, Reiter lowers his shoulder and begins ramming Whited while he is attempting to arrest Napier. Napier’s feet never leave the floor except when she is trying to kick back at Whited while he is behind her. Everything Reiter is screaming in his audio-only version of the events of what is going on during the arrest is completely rebuked by the camera in the clerk’s office. Never once during the interaction does the video show anything remotely close to justifying the "Woman Beater" content that some news agencies freely shared.

“I can assure you, 110 percent, that when I effected the arrest on Christopher Reiter and Tiffany Napier, I used the minimum amount of force necessary to take them into custody because I had to go “hands-on” with both of them, and I used only the force I needed to put them in cuffs,” Whited said.

Chad Hobbs: They claim you were excessive. Were you?

Ray Whited: No, absolutely not!

Hobbs: Did you previously know these two individuals?

Whited: Nope, the first time I’d ever seen them before in my life.

Hobbs: So you weren’t conspiring with multiple agencies to hide, protect, deprive or cover up something like Reiter and Napier have claimed?

Whited: No, no, no, NO. I was told that there were some people up there that had the girls alarmed. So, I went up there to see what was going on. Actually, to be truthful with you, I thought I was going to go up there, and it was going to be “Oh, OK, we understand,” and I was going to come back down the hall.”

Hobbs: So you didn’t go looking for a fight that day?

Whited: No, I’m too old.

Hobbs: Do you have any regrets about that day?

Whited: No, absolutely not.

That last question would come with an asterisk from Chief Deputy Whited later on in the interview. In fact, there was much more Whited had to say about the fallout from that day, the couple (which will likely surprise many), and policing in general. There is also much more to be said about the couple at the center of all of this and their motives, separate from the interview with Deputy Whited, as well. So, stay tuned as this investigative series continues over the next several days, and delves into the rest of the story.