Suspended after racist comments, NC sheriff sticks with re-election campaigning

Jody Greene greeted potential voters at Columbus County’s agricultural fair last week under an arch emblazoned with the words “GAME ON!”

He was campaigning for re-election as sheriff even though a judge suspended him from that job this month. That followed the release of a recording capturing Greene calling African-American deputies “snakes” and “Black bastards.”

But Greene, under investigation by North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation, hasn’t publicly acknowledged he’s been stripped of his powers. Instead, he’s flamboyantly pressing forward with his re-election campaign, bringing all the trappings of the office of the sheriff.

At the fair’s parade he steered a black Mercedes SUV at the front of the sheriff’s office convoy. “Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene” read the magnet decals on its rear doors.

Greene and his wife waved from open windows. The theme song from the TV show “Cops” blared: “Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when they come for you?”

In the eyes of Greene’s critics, the performance was part of a pattern of intimidation directed at people of color and Greene’s political rivals, with echoes of Donald Trump’s denial after he lost his powerful seat.

“Their whole thing is bullying,” Curtis Hill, president of the Columbus County branch of the NAACP, said of Greene and his core supporters.

The local NAACP, along with the state conference and Forward Justice, recently asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Greene for his recorded comments and his firing of at least one Black deputy. They also requested election monitors to observe in case any intimidation of Black voters occurs at the polls.

Greene’s supporters stand by him. Two days after a Superior Court judge suspended him, the chairman of the county Board of Commissioners posted to Facebook a picture of his own campaign sign next to one of Greene’s.

“Thru thick and thin I’m a Jody Greene supporter and a life time friend!!!” Ricky Bullard wrote. “Prayers for my Sheriff every day !!!”

From officer to sheriff

In the latest formal accusations against Greene, the local district attorney submitted a court filing today accusing him of a pattern of corruption and vindictiveness.

Greene’s actions have come under harsh scrutiny before, with little effect on his career trajectory.

A 1991 report by the SBI revealed that Greene and other officers at the police department in the Columbus County town of Chadbourne had been storing seized drugs in their homes, The Wilmington Morning Star reported at the time.

The lack of professionalism uncovered by the SBI was so grave that town leaders considered disbanding the department, the newspaper reported. A sergeant faced criminal charges, though Greene did not.

In a court case the same year, Greene was accused of hitting a person in handcuffs, according to the Morning Star. The case’s outcome is not clear from newspaper archives, and no records are available at the county courthouse. Greene did not respond to interview requests from The News & Observer.

What is clear is that Greene continued to work in law enforcement.

By the time he announced a run for sheriff in the 2018 election, Greene had spent several years in the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office, then 23 years with the state Highway Patrol, where he climbed the ranks to first sergeant, overseeing the troopers who patrolled neighboring Robeson County.

In the final weeks of his campaign, his friend and fellow state trooper Kevin Conner was shot and killed during a traffic stop south of Whiteville, the county seat. When one of the men accused of shooting the Columbus County native was arraigned, officers put him in Conner’s handcuffs, giving the fallen trooper the symbolic upper hand.

The tragedy helped boost Greene’s electoral chances against the incumbent sheriff, Lewis Hatcher, a former state trooper who had been appointed sheriff in 2014, then elected later that year.

As the campaign closed, Greene supporters spread the falsehood that Hatcher, who is Black, was kin to a Black man suspected of killing Conner and that Hatcher tried to help that man escape, several county residents told The News & Observer in 2019.

The election was close. After a recount, an unofficial tally showed Greene had 37 more votes than Hatcher. But allegations of illegal ballot gathering by a political operative working for Greene’s campaign, other election irregularities and questions about whether Greene actually lived in Columbus County cast doubt on his apparent victory.

State elections officials delayed certifying the results until investigations could be completed.

But months before the election was certified, District Court Judge Ashley Gore swore Greene into office. At the ceremony, Greene wore a lapel pin bearing a photo of the fallen trooper’s face.

In one of his earliest official acts, Greene hired as his chief deputy a Whiteville officer who was among the tiny minority of police officers to face criminal charges for a use of force. Three years before then officer Aaron Herring had been accused of beating a Black man in handcuffs. At trial, he was acquitted.

‘Crime is a public concern’

The fight over whether Greene could rightfully take over as sheriff stretched on for about seven months.

At least once during this period community tensions turned to violence. Greene supporters and opponents shoved and punched in the hallway outside a county elections board hearing.

As Greene settled into the office, some skeptical community members watched with concern as he amassed surplus military equipment.

Over four years, he received $3.2 million worth, including mine-resistant vehicles, far more than any other North Carolina law enforcement agency, federal data show.

Greene added his name and “In God We Trust” to the department’s logo and put a Bible verse in a sheriff’s office hallway. In huge letters it says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

When the Freedom from Religion Foundation pressed him to take the decal down, Greene promised on Facebook to not back down. The News Reporter reported that he said the verse was motivational to him and his deputies, who pray before serving search warrants.

On Facebook, Greene trumpeted individual arrests, new equipment and new specialized teams.

But he made data that voters could use to evaluate how his policies have affected crime patterns difficult to come by.

The Columbus County Sheriff’s Office has not reported crime statistics to the SBI or the FBI since Greene took office. Although that reporting is voluntary, the vast majority of North Carolina agencies comply.

“Crime is a public concern,” Richard Rosenfeld, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis and former president of the American Society of Criminology, said in an interview.

Doris Strickland, who volunteered for Greene’s 2018 campaign, was so curious about recent Columbus County crime data that she called the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association for an explanation about why no information was available in the places she knew to look.

“I like to verify what there is,” she said. “Anybody can say anything.”

The information void contributed to Stickland’s waning support for Greene, she said. But it was hearing Greene’s recorded comments that pushed her to back Greene’s Democratic opponent, Jason Soles, in the upcoming election.

Sheriff again?

Greene is scheduled to appear in court on Monday when Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser is expected to decide whether to remove, rather than just suspend, him from office.

But there’s no saying where the story will end.

District Attorney Jon David, who is like Greene and Sasser is a Republican, could bring new or updated allegations. The SBI’s investigation is ongoing, a spokeswoman said.

Yet Greene’s name will remain on ballots in this fall’s election, regardless of the hearing’s outcome.

Will he be able to hold office if he wins the race?

State elections officials aren’t offering a clear-cut answer for now. It’s an issue county and state elections boards might have to deliberate, the state board’s spokesman said.

If Greene were to resign before the election, “the county Republican Party may appoint a replacement candidate, and a vote for Greene will count for the replacement candidate,” the spokesman said.

For now, Bill Rogers, a retired state trooper with close ties to Greene, is sheriff. County commissioners appointed him the day after Greene was suspended. Herring, Greene’s chief deputy, continues to hold that job.

Greene’s name is still on the sign outside the sheriff’s office. The parking spaces near the front door are delineated with paint in his signature bright green.

On Facebook this week, his campaign urged supporters to vote and raised the specter of election fraud.

“There will be observers at these polls to assure people are not voting more than once,” a recent post said. “If you are told you have already voted and you have not, get their name and call the board of elections to report it.”

The campaign also released a new video. “Serving the citizens of Columbus County is very humbling for me,” Greene says in the opening frames.

He looks directly at the camera. A sheriff’s office mug sits on a desk in front of him. A gold sheriff’s star is pinned to his lapel.

Greene shared the ad on his personal Facebook page, where he listed as his profession “SHERIFF at Columbus County Sheriff’s Office.”