It was not exactly the crime of the century when a West Virginia police chief pulled a woman over for an expired registration and no visible inspection sticker before pulling a gun on her and threatening to kill her.
Monongah Police Chief Nathan Lanham then smashed the woman’s car windows with a sledgehammer, prompting her to escape from the passenger’s side door, resulting in the police chief body slamming and arresting her on felony charges.
But the chief’s aggressive actions, which were caught on video, have led to his resignation from the Monongah Police Department, and all charges were dismissed against the woman, Sarah Beth Delloma. But only after she spent five days in jail.
”He would have certainly been terminated if he had not tenured his resignation to the town,” Ryan Umina, an attorney for Monongah, told WDTV.
The incident took place on Aug. 1 after Lanham pulled over the 49-year-old woman for the expired registration and no visible inspection sticker.
Delloma said she pulled right over, but the chief refused to show her his badge or identify himself, which made her believe he was not a real cop.
“She feared for her life,” attorney Joe Shaffer told WV News.
“She thought he was impersonating a police officer. This is an intelligent woman who’s aware of cases across the country of people faking being an officer. She asked for ID, for his badge.”
But she said Lanham only increased his aggression after being asked to identify himself.
Lanham said Delloma drove away after he told her he was going to tow her car, accusing her in court documents of operating the vehicle in a “a manner showing reckless indifference to the safety of others” by “traveling fast down a narrow road in a residential area with children and elderly, driving in a residential yard,” according to WDTV.
The police chief said she drove away a second time after that, “going around the house and cutting through a backyard,” so he headed in the opposite direction to head her off.
That was when he said he decided to use the sledgehammer.
Lanham said he exited his vehicle, continued to “give lawful orders to exit the vehicle,” and told her she was under arrest. He says Delloma fled again, “going around the house and cutting through a backyard,” so he traveled the opposite direction down Shaver Street to “head her vehicle off.”
But Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Freeman filed a motion on Monday saying that “the facts in the complaint do not support the charge of fleeing in a motor vehicle with reckless indifference to the safety of others,” according to WDTV.
The Sledgehammer
Delloma said she was driving when she spotted a white vehicle quickly approaching her from behind, which she did not know was a police vehicle until it turned on its red and blue emergency lights to pull her over.
Then she said Lanham approached her car wearing khakis and a black T-shirt with a pistol strapped to his thigh, which was when she asked to see his badge and identification.
When the chief demanded her documents, Delloma told him they were at her house, which was about 30 yards away. That’s when he ordered her out of the car to have it towed.
“Get out of the f–king car!” the chief yells at her while pointing his pistol toward her as she sits in the driver’s seat.
A man witnessing the scene from out of the video frame yells at Lanham to watch his language, only for the chief to tell him to “go f–k yourself!”
The chief also tells Delloma to “go f–k yourself, you don’t know sh-t, get out of the car.”
He eventually walks back to his patrol car and returns with a sledgehammer, and uses it to shatter the driver’s side window.
Case Dismissed
After busting her window out, Delloma tries to escape from the passenger’s side door, but Lanham runs around the car, grabs her around the neck, and slams her to the ground, where he plants his body weight on her while handcuffing her.
“Help me! Help me!” Delloma begins screaming.
She ended up spending five days in jail on a felony charge of fleeing in a vehicle with reckless indifference to the safety of others.
But after watching the viral video, Marion County Prosecutor Jeff Freeman announced he will not be pursuing the felony charge against Delloma.
Magistrate Brian Shuck agreed with Freeman’s assessment of the incident and dismissed the felony charge. Monongah Mayor John Palmer then announced the chief’s departure on Facebook, saying, “Effective Tuesday, August 6, 2024, Officer Nathan Lanham is no longer employed by the Town of Monongah.”
Shaffer says he plans on filing a lawsuit and is seeking to speak to other citizens who may have had negative experiences with the former chief in the town of approximately 1,000 people.
“We plan to proceed with a civil case against Chief Lanham and the town of Monongah,” Shaffer said. “And I’ll be speaking with other people who have said they have had encounters with him.”
