Candidates for county sheriff to be in spotlight Monday

Joe Lorette

A candidate forum Monday night will feature two Republican hopefuls -- Joe Lorette and David Whitis -- in the race for Lampasas County sheriff.

The public is invited to attend the event, which will be at 7 p.m. in the district courtroom on the second floor of the Lampasas County Courthouse.

Forum sponsors are the Lampasas County Conservative Club and the Lampasas Dispatch Record. Jim Lowe, editor and publisher of the newspaper, will serve as moderator.

Written questions from the audience will be relayed to the candidates.

The forum will be hosted a little more than a week before the start of early voting, which will lead up to the March 4 Republican and Democratic parties' primaries. Early voting is Feb. 19-29.

Whitis has been in law enforcement for almost 20 years. He began with the Lampasas Police Department as a communications officer in March 1988. He then became a patrol officer and later was assigned to the Central Texas Narcotics Task Force, a multi-jurisdictional agency then based in Belton. Whitis worked in narcotics and undercover investigations.

David Whitis

In May 1992, he joined the Lampasas County Sheriff's Department. Starting as a deputy sheriff, he advanced to criminal investigator, sergeant and then chief deputy. He has held the latter post for the past two years.

A Texas master peace officer, Whitis is making his first run for political office.

Lorette served with the Lampasas County Sheriff's Department for nine years, joining the force in August 1998 and resigning in July 2007.

He is in his 10th year in law enforcement, having joined the Kempner Police Department as a reserve officer last August.

While with the Sheriff's Department, Lorette was a patrol deputy and later an investigator.

He studied criminal justice for two years at Central Texas College.

Lorette served 22 years in the U.S. Army. He retired as a first sergeant in communications-electronics. A Texas advanced peace officer, he also is waging his first political campaign.

Whitis, who earned an associate of arts degree in criminal justice from Central Texas College, has an instructor license through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards-Education.

As such, he can offer accredited training for law enforcement in Texas.

Whitis also is active in the Texas Chief Deputies Association, where he serves on the organization's board of directors.

Lorette has specialized training from the Texas Department of Public Safety as a latent print examiner. In addition, he is a blood spatter analyst. He also was trained as a public information officer in law enforcement.

He was certified by TCLEOSE as a special investigator, which qualified him to investigate sexual assaults, child abuse and family violence crimes.

Lorette also has been trained in body excavation techniques, and interview and interrogation methods.

He is a member of the Texas Division of the International Association for Identification and the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators.