Former Sheriff Candidate Turner Accused of Assault

(Pike County, Mo)--A year-long investigation has led to the arrest of a former Pike County sheriff candidate and an apparent admission that a former Louisiana police officer lied about his role in the case.

Journalist Brent Engel reports forty-year-old Grover Lynn Turner Junior of Louisiana is charged with seven felony counts of assault, one felony count of property damage and one misdemeanor count of making a false report.

On Tuesday, Turner was in the Pike County Jail on 25 thousand dollars cash-only bond. An arraignment and bond reduction hearing was set for 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Turner is accused of causing more than 67 hundred dollars in damage by using his pickup truck to ram another vehicle on Route UU early the morning of July 29th of last year. The incident allegedly happened just hours after the end of the Pike County Fair.

A probable cause statement says witnesses identified the driver as Turner, who was a candidate for sheriff at the time. He lost the November election by more than 2,500 votes to incumbent Sheriff Stephen Korte. The probable cause statement alleges that Turner lied to authorities about his pickup truck’s location. A day after the alleged accident, Turner reported the vehicle as stolen. It was found in Ralls County.

Missouri Highway Patrol investigators say a former Louisiana police officer and his girlfriend separately told them they lied about giving Turner a ride from the fairgrounds. Instead, they now claim they picked up Turner the night of the alleged accident on a gravel road north of the fairgrounds. The officer no longer works for the Louisiana Police Department. Neither he nor his girlfriend have been charged.