A Columbus city councilman was arrested in Gordo, Alabama Friday night on multiple charges according to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office website.
Pierre D. Beard, Sr., 35, was booked Friday night at 8:30 p.m. on multiple charges, including driving under the influence (alcohol), possession of marijuana 2nd, drug paraphernalia-1st offense and illegal alcohol. He was arrested by Gordo Police Department. Bond was set at $2,350, according to the website.
Calls placed to Beard’s phone Saturday morning went directly to voicemail. He was still listed as a current inmate on the PCSO’s website as of 1 p.m. Saturday.
Beard was first elected to the Columbus city council in a 2019 special election to fill the term of former councilman Fred Jackson, who resigned his position. In 2021, he was reelected to a full term, which he is currently filling.
Previous brushes with the law
Beard previously received a citation in January 2021 on misdemeanor marijuana charges after he was allegedly the passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over for speeding near the intersection of Jess Lyons Road and Military Road in Columbus. At the time, Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said when the deputy who pulled the vehicle over smelled marijuana, he conducted a search and found less than one ounce. Beard claimed the marijuana belonged to him, not the driver, and he was issued a citation for a misdemeanor quantity of marijuana. He publicly apologized through multiple media outlets, including a letter to the editor in The Dispatch, after that incident. He was reelected in June 2021.
Just ten months after that misdemeanor citation, Beard was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic violence for allegedly firing a gun into the air while arguing with his wife at their home.
Earlier this year, Beard was involved in the immediate aftermath of two June 25 robberies at the Waffle House on Highway 45 North in Columbus. At the time Quavis Shawnterris Betts, 28, was arrested at a La Quinta Inn hotel room under Beard’s name. Columbus Police Chief Joseph Daughtry told the Columbus Rotary Club in August that video surveillance also showed Beard and Betts interacting around the time of the robbery, and he planned to present the case to a grand jury on whether to charge Beard.
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