NC sheriff rejects calls to resign from DA, others after his racist remarks

A southeastern North Carolina sheriff is facing mounting pressure to resign after a local TV station published a recording in which he calls some deputies “Black bastards.”

The local district attorney is now among those urging Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene to step aside.

“My hope is that you will recognize the harm that your statements have caused and that you will make the honorable decision to resign,” Jon David, the district attorney for Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus counties, wrote in a letter to Greene on Monday.

At David’s request, the State Bureau of Investigation launched an obstruction of justice investigation probe focused on the sheriff last week.

In his letter David pointed out that Greene was required to disclose to trial judges “any conduct that may call into question either your veracity or ability to impartially uphold the law on racial grounds.”

“There can be no question that the use of racist language, directed at all officers of color under your command, is conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, which brings the Office of Sheriff into disrepute,” David wrote.

Both David and Greene are Republicans.

Greene posted a long defense on Facebook last week, suggesting that the recording had been altered, but he did not deny making the remarks.

On Thursday, he assured his supporters on Facebook that he would not resign. “I will continue to serve no matter the allegations or rumors,” he wrote.

The recording that prompted the district attorney’s letter and preceded his decision to invite the SBI to investigate was made by Greene’s opponent in the November election, Jason Soles, the Wilmington-based TV station WECT reported.

Soles served as acting sheriff at the time of the call, in February 2019, due to a dispute over who won the 2018 sheriff’s election. After a recount, fewer than 40 votes separated Greene and Lewis Hatcher, the then incumbent sheriff, who is African American.

Several voters lodged protests with elections officials, raising questions about absentee ballots, delays at a polling place serving a large African-American population, Greene’s residency in the county and the actions of a political operative working for Greene whose actions in a neighboring county led to a rare re-do election.

The 2018 dispute highlighted racial divisions in the community. During a hearing before the local elections board, the audience was split along racial lines. White people filled the courtroom pews behind Greene. Black people lined up behind Hatcher.

African-American county residents told The News & Observer at the time that they believed Greene’s campaign had capitalized on racial fear mongering. Greene supporters spread false rumors that Hatcher was kin to a Black man accused of killing a white state trooper and that Hatcher tried to help the man escape from law enforcement custody, they said.

When the election dispute was resolved and Greene took office, he sparked further alarm among African Americans by choosing as his chief deputy an officer who was arrested, and later acquitted, for punching a Black man in handcuffs.

Criticism of Greene this time has come from some unusual quarters.

The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association issued a statement calling Greene’s recorded words “inflammatory, racial derogatory, insulting and offensive.”

After the association’s governing board took the rare step of voting to hold a hearing on the matter, Greene resigned from the organization.

No sheriffs have been censured by the group or ejected from it since at least 1996, and only two sheriffs in recent memory have eschewed membership, according to the association’s general counsel.

If Greene does not choose to step aside voluntarily, there is little anybody can do to force him.

North Carolina’s sheriffs are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as most law enforcement officers. The launch of a criminal probe into a sheriff’s activities does not obligate a sheriff to resign or even temporarily withdraw.

Under state law, there’s only one way to strip Greene of his office other than voting him out: A local judge must order it.

The law lays out a limited number of grounds for removing sheriffs: corruption, extortion, intoxication, willful misconduct, willful or habitual neglect, refusal to perform the job or conviction of a felony.

The county attorney or the local district attorney can initiate the process, or a group of at least five local voters can write a petition.

The county attorney or the DA must approve a voters’ petition for it to move forward.

The local NAACP is considering putting together a petition, said Curtis Hill, the Columbus County branch’s president.

“We can’t have people like him making those types of statements representing our county,” Hill said.

“You’re supposed to be able to look up to the sheriff and the police and those kinds of things in a community, right? People are scared when they get stopped. What might happen?”

Neither David nor Patrick Flanagan, the attorney the Board of Commissioners have hired to handle potential litigation, responded to The News & Observer’s inquiries about whether they would write or approve a petition.

The board’s chairman, Ricky Bullard, read a brief statement at Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting.

“At this time, the Board of Commissioners is aware of the issue involving the sheriff,” he said. “Since there is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate for the board to discuss the matter in a public forum at this time.”

The meeting was adjourned about a minute after the board returned from a closed session that was called, in part, to talk about potential litigation.