Don Lamb

Don Lamb
Michael Muhney as Don Lamb
First appearance	"Pilot"
Last appearance	"Mars, Bars"
Created by	Rob Thomas
Portrayed by	Michael Muhney
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Sheriff
Significant other(s)	Madison Sinclair

Sheriff of Balboa County Don Lamb is a fictional character played by Michael Muhney on the UPN/The CW television series Veronica Mars, which debuted during the fall 2004 season on UPN.

The character, considered by many to be the character fans "love to hate", is one of Veronica's main enemies, and one of the most prominent adult characters, after Keith Mars. He was a recurring character during Seasons 1-2 and promoted to series regular status Season 3.

Very little is known about the background of Sheriff Don Lamb. Due to cryptic comments about his father said by Lamb himself, it seems that he was emotionally and/or physically abused by him. Lamb went to college in Texas where he played ball, but had to drop out after a knee injury. On his office wall was a wooden United States Marine Corps Eagle, Globe and Anchor plaque, suggesting that Lamb once served as a Marine. Lamb is 34, a Cancer and his hometown is Neptune, California.

What is known is that Lamb joined the Balboa County Sheriff's Department and quickly rose through the ranks through the patronage of then Sheriff Keith Mars. As one of Keith's deputies, Lamb looked at Keith as his mentor, but the two had a rather violent falling out over Keith Mars accusing software mogul Jake Kane of murdering his daughter Lilly. When Keith Mars was forced out of office due to an emergency recall election, Lamb quickly maneuvered himself into the job as Sheriff with the support of various members of the 09er community, who felt that Lamb would be a much more controllable figure than Keith Mars.

Lamb's tenure as Sheriff was quickly solidified when he arrested Abel Koontz, a disgruntled former employee of Jake Kane, for the murder of Lilly. Unknown to Lamb at the time, the arrest was secretly manipulated by the Kane family themselves, as they believed that Lilly's younger brother Duncan had murdered Lilly. The Kane family paid Abel to confess to the crime, planted evidence at his home (evidence that would later be revealed to have been photographed to look like it was inside Lilly's room the night of her death), and had their head of security Clarence Wiedman anonymously call in the information regarding Abel Koontz being the murderer, information that was crucial in leading the oblivious Sheriff Lamb directly to the Kane family's patsy and his arrest.