DA calls for removal of North Carolina sheriff under fire for racist remarks

[ad_1]

Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene is facing allegations of racism, politically motivated arrests and other wrongdoings. He is the subject of a criminal investigation for obstruction of justice. He recently resigned.

Still, Greene was sworn in Thursday for his second term as top law enforcement official in his rural southeastern North Carolina county, after voters re-elected him in November.

Almost immediately after being sworn in Thursday morning for what is supposed to be a four-year term, the local district attorney filed a motion with the court asking for a second time that Greene be permanently removed from office.

The local newspaper, the News Reporter, published a copy of the petition which cites half a dozen reasons why Greene should be removed from office, ranging from highly inappropriate and racist statements to corruption and a sexual relationship with the one of his assistants.

People also read…

A local judge already temporarily suspended Greene from serving as sheriff earlier this year as the election heats up. And minutes from a court hearing in late October that could have permanently removed him from office, Greene instead resigned. This held up the hearing as he continued to run for re-election, The News & Observer reported at the time.

And even though Columbus County voters this year chose Greene, a Republican, to become sheriff again, District Attorney Jon David has now started that legal process again to have him impeached.

The N&O attempted to contact Greene by email on Wednesday seeking comment, but did not receive a response.

Greene faced intense criticism during his re-election campaign in 2022, after local TV station WECT released a recording of him making racist remarks about black MPs he suspected of being disloyal. frequently calling animals or with swear words.

Every black guy I know, you gotta fire him, he told a senior deputy in a recording.

Facing scrutiny over that initial scandal, The N&O reported, Greene was later charged with other wrongdoings as sheriff, including:

Arrest his perceived political enemies, including a county commissioner whom Greene had arrested, after he was recorded threatening to arrest him if he voted against a budget increase for the sheriff’s office.

Threatening county commissioners with retaliation in other ways, including removing air conditioning units from a local college and sending investigators to a commissioner’s business.

Sexual harassment, involving an affair with a deputy under his command.

Damage government property, for a broken window as a result of a meeting with this congressman.

Failing to protect those detained in the county, after a man suffered severe brain damage from a beating that prison staff under Greenes’ command failed to stop .

The State Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation into Greene, The N&O reported earlier this year. The record of that investigation is not public at this point, but Greenes’ attorney said in court in October he believed it was over 900 pages.

Opposition from many sides

The racist remarks, in which Greene refers to MPs he says shared information with his opponent as bastards and black snakes, were criticized by many people, ranging from civil rights groups to the North Carolina Sheriffs Association.

Calls for Greenes to step down have come from local and state NAACP chapters and, most importantly, from David, another Republican elected official who serves as the district attorney for Brunswick, Bladen and Columbus counties.

Sheriffs have immense power in North Carolina and little oversight. One of the only ways to remove them from office other than by voters every four years is by order of a local judge.

David used his power as a prosecutor to do just that, filing legal motions to have Greene suspended from his post and permanently removed. When Greene abruptly resigned in late October, David said his office would have an ethical obligation to file a new petition to have Greene removed if he won a second term.

On Election Day, Greene was re-elected by 54% of Columbus County voters who cast their ballots. But he faced additional challenges after the election, filed by Columbus County residents who sought to disqualify him from holding office.

Local and state election officials ultimately dismissed those challenges, but pushed back Greenes’ swearing-in ceremony, which was originally scheduled to take place on Dec. 5, according to WECT.

Legal troubles pile up for Greene

The surface of racist comments Greene made about black deputies sparked several legal issues for the incumbent sheriff, who was narrowly elected in 2018 by a margin of just 37 votes out of more than 18,000, The N&O reported.

But even before his current legal troubles, Greene also faced other scandals while running for office in 2018.

His campaign had hired a group that employed McCrae Dowless, the late political operative from neighboring Bladen County who in that same election led what was described by authorities as a fraudulent scheme to help elect the Republican candidate to the Congressman Mark Harris. Greene also faced allegations that he lived in South Carolina and was ineligible to run for office.

However, 2018 election officials considered those concerns and ultimately decided not to block his victory. He took office in 2019, and even before he was officially installed as sheriff, a top deputy began recording Greenes’ rants about black office workers.

That MP, Jason Soles, who ran unsuccessfully against Greene in the 2022 election, has previously said he didn’t go to the media with the tapes until 2022 because he first tried to share of his concerns to state law enforcement officials, but to no avail.

After the tapes were released and David publicly called on state authorities to investigate whether Greene and his deputies may have committed obstruction of justice, the SBI confirmed that it had launched an investigation into the stonewalling Greene.

A search warrant filed in December indicated that a federal investigation into the sheriff’s office had been opened by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to the News Reporter, which reported that Davids’ office requested that part of the warrant be kept under seal to protect a federal investigation.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say whether that search warrant was correct citing the existence of a federal criminal investigation into Greene.

We neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation, wrote a spokesperson for Michael Easley Jr., the lead federal prosecutor for eastern North Carolina.

In addition to the investigations, David told Greene that he could no longer call Greene as a witness in criminal cases being tried in Columbus County, due to his racial bias.

The comments also halted some grants for the Sheriff’s Office, the North Carolina Governors Traffic Safety Program and the Governor’s Crime Commission notifying the Sheriff’s Office they were suspending grants due to potential violations of the federal civil rights law, The N&O reported.

Be the first to know

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

[ad_2]