Kimble is arrested for hitchhiking by small town sheriff Joe Bob Simms, played by actor Pat Hingle. Simms, who has his eye on higher political office, is building Apache Park, which will contain a statue of the next governor, Simms. Simms uses labor from his jail to work on this private project.
Although the sheriff appears to many to be a great guy, and good with children, in reality he is a sadistic taskmaster. Kimble, gathering trees left for planting at Lookout Point in Apache Park, sees below him the sheriff tormenting prisoner Neely Hollister (actor Tom Skerritt) with the police car. When Hollister finally gets mad and throws a rock at the car, Simms chases down and kills Hollister with the car, but falsely reports it as an unavoidable accident.
Sheriff Simms tells Kimble the judge gave him time served, drives him to the outskirts of town, and orders him to keep going. But before leaving, Kimble returns to town, looks up the Hollister family, and tells them what he saw. Kimble's life is in jeopardy when the outraged sheriff learns that Kimble has been squealing on him. With a coroner's inquest scheduled in a few days on Neely Hollister's death, Sheriff Simms swings into action to make sure that Kimble will not be alive to tell his story to the court.