#BREAKING: Will Lewis now taking the stand. 
Lewis says the whole controversy ramped up with the blog post. He says at this point he directed staff to contact SLED. Says SLED never spoke with him, neither did the solicitor's office or anyone else.
Lewis talking about his background. Says he tried college and it "wasn't his thing." Says he went into the Airforce and then got into law enforcement.
Says eventually he went back to school and took a position with the Bannister Law Firm in 2012. After that he ran for sheriff.
Lewis confirms Nabors worked at the law firm as well. Says Nabors was "very astute" for someone her age. Says she had an authoritative demeanor to keep a lawyer on schedule.
Says he decided to run for sheriff because he saw "major deficiencies" in the leadership at GCSO. Says it lacked a human nature. Says he felt he could do a better job. This included revising positions at the sheriff's office.
Lewis says he started planning his staff during the course of the election itself. Says he started looking for people. Says he knew he needed a community director (new position). Says he created many positions with the sheriff's office.
Says he was looking for educated people who were go-getters. Says he needed an administrative assistant because the previous sheriff didn't keep up with anything. Says because of this he knew he needed someone to keep him on track.
Says he was looking at several people for the administrative assistant position. Says some of those people in politics took jobs elsewhere, he then moved onto the people he knew in paralegal. Says Nabors was the one who ultimately accepted the job.
Lewis says he didn't have much knowledge on s sheriff's office budget. Says he looked to the county administrator for guidance on this. Says he mentioned that he wanted to create new positions. Says salaries are set on pay scales.
Says he can't remember how many new positions he created, but it was an amount that led to him being told that he could not create any more positions.
Lewis says any position that is an "on call" position it is subject to having a vehicle assigned to them. Says someone from the command staff put in the request for the on call cars. Says he did not choose which cars those people received.
Lewis talking about Ty Miller now. Says they never got along and were polar opposites. Says Miller was strongly opposed to him being elected. Said he thought it was a good idea to put her in a leadership position in order to provide a counter balance to his style.
Lewis talking about the budget now. He said the previous way the budget was handled didn't work. Says everyone was still underpaid so he wanted to do things differently. "There were all kinds of major major issues."
Lewis saying he and the county administrator tried several times to get together to talk about his budget requests. Says Nabors needed to be part of that because she had compiled a lot of the data.
Lewis says the county administrator was the one who suggested going out of town for the budget meeting. Says he asked Lewis to see if Nabors could make the arrangements.
Lewis now getting into the Charlotte trip. Says he brought a liquor bottle with him because he doesn't like to pay bar prices.
Lewis says he picks drove Nabors to Charlotte. Says they went to the valet when they got to the hotel. Says they got their luggage out of the car. Says he put it on top of Nabor's bag. Describes it as a Vera Bradley bag.
Lewis says they checked in, went to their rooms, dropped off luggage and came back to the lobby for appetizers and drinks. Lewis says he doesn't believe he had a county credit card at that time.
Says they then left the hotel and went to a pub. Lewis says prior to this he had never hung out with any of the people in the group socially. Says after the pub they came back to the hotel. Says no one seemed too intoxicated.
Lewis says he remembers throwing Nabors over her shoulder for a fireman's carry, says he wasn't as strong as he thought he was and stumbled. Says he thought he was being silly. Back at the hotel he says they got in the elevator and went back to their rooms.
Lewis says ultimately Nabors and himself ended up alone on the elevator. Says he went to Nabors' room to get his liquor bottle and asked if she wanted a drink. She said yes. He says he poured two tumbler glasses of the drink.
Lewis says the conversation was pretty limited. Says he sat on the couch and turned on the tv to watch baseball. Says Nabors sat next to him and they started to have general conversation.
Lewis says he had his arm outstretched and Nabors "nudged up" to him. Says eventually they kissed. Lewis says next the kiss became "more hot and heavy" says they then moved around to the bed area and had sex.
Lewis says a million things went through his head following this. Says he was "very very bothered" that he had cheated on his wife. Says he left and went back to his room. Says Nabors did not come to his room.
Now he's talking about the next day and the budget meetings. Says this was the first time he had learned about any county budget processes.
Lewis says through much of the day they talked about the budget process. This leading all the way up to and through dinner. Lewis says the county administrator finally said he was done talking about the budget for the day. Says this was during dinner.
Lewis says he broke off from the group to go to CVS to pick up some Advil. Says Nabors texted him to let them know where they ended up. Lewis says he went to meet the group at that bar.
Lewis says they were all walking back to the hotel together. Says he never pulled out a tube of lubricant.
Lewis says he considered the budget meeting in Charlotte a success. Says they ended up with raises for the deputies as well as new cars. Lewis says they then went home. Says he never called Ty Miller on the drive back. Says he never called Miller other than for work.
Lewis says there were no problems with Nabors after they returned from Charlotte. Lewis says he felt ashamed of what happened. "It was stupid," he says. "I was dumb to pursue a relationship with a girl who was not my wife."
Lewis saying he wished Nabors had told him she couldn't work with him anymore. Says he would have stopped pursuing her.
Lewis now talking about the conversations that Nabors recorded regarding the trip to Reno and sharing a room. He says after that it turned into a "boyfriend girlfriend squabble." Says he never saw it coming.
Now talking about conversations where Nabors was considering quitting. Says he could tell she was uncomfortable working for him. Lewis confirming that Miller called him about meeting with Nabors.
Lewis now talking about the day Nabors came in to quit. Says he felt like he lost a friend and also his right hand person.
Says he went without a personal assistant for some time as the hiring process went on. Says he doesn't remember talking about a beauty queen from Tennessee. Says ultimately Addie Hampton was hired for the job. Says he knew her in a limited capacity from her work in news.
Says Hampton's salary was more than Nabors. Says she had added qualifications as far as media relations.
Lewis now talking about the blog post. Says this prompted a county council member to ask for an audit of him. Says there was never a report that he improperly spent county money.
Says he never inappropriately or even accidentally spend county money on Nabors.
Says this all gave him time to reflect on his relationship with God and most importantly with him family. Says he's not perfect but is trying to be a better person.
Lewis now talking about the accomplishments of the sheriff's office under his guidance and after the blog came out. "They had to face down the barrel of my indiscretions."
Direct done. Cross happening now. Lewis' wife can be seen crying in court.
Prosecution asking about salary ranges. Lewis says he can't exactly remember. Prosecution claims Lewis started Nabors near the salary cap, Lewis says if the numbers being given were correct, yes. But he wasn't sure that they were.
Lewis says he did not set up the BMW driving course trip. He says Davenport set this up on his own. "Marcus does things for himself."
Says at the driving course Lewis and Nabors paired themselves together. Prosecution saying he could have paired himself with the county administrator if the point was to foster a closer working relationship.
Prosecution now giving Lewis a list of texts to look over. There is a congratulatory text from the county administrator. These were sent the day before he was sworn in.
Prosecution asks if they could have had the budget meeting in county square. Lewis says yes, they could have.
Back to listening to the cross examination now. Prosecution is asking about the use of Nabors' county issued car.
Lewis says he and Nabors were a team. Says he couldn't have done the job without her. Says when he worked after hours Nabors would elect to stay late with him. Says he did not force her to do so. "There was always something for Savanah to do."
Lewis says at the time he did not see that he was going to have an affair. He says looking back that is what happened. Lewis says he does not remember the conversation with Miller about being careful about perception.
Lewis says he did not rape Nabors and did not sexually assault her. He says he did admit to having sex with her. Says there were conversations with people at the sheriff's office about this.
"I haven't seen the code of ethics in a while" says Lewis when the prosecution asks him about what it says.
Lewis says he stressed trust and truthfulness with Nabors. Lewis says the only person he lied to about having sex with Nabors after the blog post was his wife.
"I don't think one person is bigger than the office. I think the office stand alone." Lewis says in response to the integrity of the sheriff's office. Says the people there shouldn't have to answer for what he did.
Lewis says he remembers saying "what happens in Charlotte stays in Charlotte" to Nabors.
Prosecution playing one of the secret records between Nabors and Lewis. Nabors is crying and says she feels manipulated.
Lewis says in this recording he was trying to convince Nabors to stay with the office. He says at this point he knew there was going to be a fall out and that his wife was going to find out. Lewis says his manipulation tactics were in reference to criminals.
Another recording being played where Lewis is saying going to Reno without her would be no fun. Lewis agrees that this was probably to continue the adulterous relationship.
Court taking a quick break.
Prosecution says they have more than just 10 minutes of cross left. Judge says he's planning to excuse the jury. Some discussion about what time to start tomorrow.
