Sheriff Jim Valenti

Sheriff James "Jim" Valenti, Jr is a fictional character created by Melinda Metz for the young adults book series Roswell High and adapted by Jason Katims for the 1999-2002 American science fiction television series Roswell. He was portrayed by William Sadler in the television series.

Season one

Valenti is frequently the antagonist in the first season, albeit a sympathetic one. His father was also the sheriff of Roswell, and was ridiculed for his insistence that aliens live among humans. Valenti inherited from his father an old autopsy photograph from the 1950s of a body killed by inexplicable means, with a silver handprint on the chest.

In the pilot episode, Valenti is called into the local restaurant, the Crashdown Café, where a shooting has occurred. Although no one was apparently injured, and the young waitress Liz Parker insists that the red mess on her uniform is ketchup, a pair of tourists insist they saw the girl get shot, and a young man ran up to her and did something to her before running off. There is also no bullet found in the café. Valenti notes the presence of empty bottles of Tabasco sauce on one of the tables, and later notices more in the Jeep of teenager Max Evans.