Original Article Va. Deputy Pulls Over Officers, Gets Heat Updated: Friday, Sep. 30, 2005 - 5:43 AM STAUNTON, Va. (AP) - A deputy pulled over a convoy of New Jersey law enforcement officers traveling home from a Hurricane Katrina relief effort, sparking complaints from a New Jersey sheriff for the "grief" they received. Augusta County Sheriff Randall D. Fisher defended the deputy, saying he pulled over the emergency vehicles on Interstate 81 after state police received complaints about their driving. "They were traveling at a high rate of speed, people were being run off the road," Fisher said Thursday. The deputy "was basically asking the guys to cut their (emergency lights), slow down." Some members of the convoy did not heed the deputy's order to pull over, Fisher said, and the stop initially was adversarial. But he said the New Jersey officers left amid handshakes and back slaps with his deputy. "We pretty much thought it was the end of the story," Fisher said. But the same day, New Jersey's Passaic County sheriff, Jerry Speziale, called the Augusta County Sheriff's Office and criticized the deputy's actions. "If you think that that's not a disgrace, you should take the badge off your shirt and throw it in the garbage," Speziale said in the telephone call, which Fisher played for The Associated Press. Speziale said Thursday that the vehicles in the convoy were using their overhead lights while driving in the left lane, but denied they were speeding or pushing drivers off the road. "I stand behind my men," Speziale said. He said Virginia police had pulled over other out-of-state officers also returning from Hurricane Katrina duty. "They did it to the NYPD. They did it to others. The pattern's not on our part." Fisher said the deputy extended the professional courtesy of not ticketing the officers even though they were speeding at up 95 mph and, he said, forcing motorists out of the passing lane. But he also said he could understand their haste: "I'm not defending anyone's actions, but I'm sure they were anxious to get home."