District Attorney Charlotte Tesmer and Butler County Sheriff Danny Bond swore to uphold their second full terms in office at a ceremony held on Jan. 23 at the Butler County Courthouse. 

Tesmer replaced former D.A. John Andrews in 2012 when he stepped down from the position. She was elected to return as D.A. in a 2016 win against William “Bill” Morgan Rayborn Jr. and defeated opponent Arlene Richardson to be reelected for her second full term in November 2021.

Tesmer said her relationship with area law enforcement is an important part of her success as a D.A.

“We’ve been able to help train law enforcement to better themselves so that they can bring better cases,” Tesmer said. “We have a wonderful working relationship with the Sheriff’s deputies and the police departments in our areas. I’m proud that we have that working relationship with them.”

Tesmer noted that her close relationship with local sheriffs has helped keep the tri-county area safer during her time as D.A. and during the previous 14 years she served as Assistant D.A.

“I know that I can call on them 24/7 and they know they can call me 24/7,” Tesmer said. “We go out to major crime scenes when we’re called out and we are available to answer any questions [deputies may have]. Danny (Bond) and I kind of grew up in the system together, and Chris West (Lowndes County Sheriff) as well. I worked with both of them as an assistant D.A. several years ago.”

Bond, also sworn to his second full term, will serve as Sheriff for four more years and expressed gratitude for his supporters.

“I think we’ve done a lot in the past four years,” Bond said. “We were able to do a lot to upgrade the office and make it more accessible. There were a lot of things at the jail we needed to fix and equipment we needed. For a long time, we only had one investigator. Now we have two and every time something happens we think about what we did and what we can do better.”

“For us, being a rural county, we don’t have the tax base larger counties have. They have more money than we do, so we have to make sure we get every penny out of every dollar to go forward and be good stewards of the county’s money.”

As Tesmer settles into her next term, she said she will focus on processing cases through the court system.

“It would be nice to get our cases back on track,” Tesmer said. “Our circuit judge is adding some extra jury terms so we can get even more cases taken care of economically and quickly.”

“Because we have three counties, we only have jury trials in each of our counties twice a year,” Tesmer said. “We have to load up as many as we can to try to get the dockets caught up. So, [getting caught up is] a daunting task but we’re fortunate to try to get it done. We work with our judges to try to get that done to better satisfy our victims.”

Serving alongside Tesmer are Steve Townes, chief assistant D.A.; Tiffany Spear and Brian Collins, both full-time assistant D.A.’s in Butler County; Levi Nichols as part-time D.A. in Crenshaw County; and Randy Bozeman, a part-time assistant D.A. in Lowndes County.