A Graham County deputy blacklisted by federal prosecutors finds his integrity at the center of a 2019 case that a prominent local defense attorney wants dismissed.
Investigator Matthew Cox of the Graham County Sheriff’s Office was blacklisted by a former U. S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina after two courts ruled that Cox’s testimony regarding a 2012 traffic stop “was not credible.”
“I have instructed our federal partners in the DEA and the BIA that we will not accept cases in which Detective Cox is an essential witness and that they should not utilize his services as a K-9 officer,” former U.S. Attorney Anne M. Tompkins wrote in a letter to former Graham County sheriff Mickey Anderson. “The unquestioned integrity of all officers involved in a police investigation is an essential ingredient to any criminal conviction.”
Tompkins’ letter, obtained by the Cherokee Scout, refers to a 2014 evidence suppression hearing that stemmed from a traffic stop two years prior. According to court documents, two judges determined that Cox falsely claimed his K-9 indicated the presence of drugs as a pretext to search a car during a traffic stop in Cherokee.
Ultimately, police found oxycodone pills when they searched occupants of the car and later raided an apartment. However, a District Court judge granted a motion to suppress the evidence after determining that officers lacked the probable cause to conduct the searches.
Court documents say the judge reviewed video of the arrests and found that Cox’s K-9 did not alert to the presence of drugs at any time during the traffic stop. Moreover, the judge concluded that Cherokee Indian Police intentionally enlisted help from Cox to “provide the legal key to unlock” the defendants’ car.
“The officers contacted Cox to bring the drug dog from two counties away rather than enlist the help of any of the five closer drug detection teams,” U.S. District Court Judge Martin Reidinger noted in his ruling.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office moved to have the charges dismissed following the judge’s decision, prompting Tompkins to send Anderson the aforementioned memo, commonly known as a Giglio letter. Police are issued such letters when prosecutors believe an officer’s actions diminishes their credibility to a point where a defendant could use that perceived lack of integrity to their advantage in court.
Officers who receive a Giglio letter are often taken off the streets or relegated to a role where they would not be the arresting officer in a criminal case.
“Any cases presented to our office in the future by this officer or dependent on this officer would require us to turn over the circumstances of this misconduct to the court and to defense counsel, and, therefore, any such cases very well may be declined for that reason alone,” Tompkins explains in her letter to Anderson.
Today, seven years later, Cox’s integrity is on trial again, as defense attorney Holly Christy has asked a Superior Court judge to suppress evidence and dismiss charges related to a 2019 traffic stop.
According to court documents, Cox stopped Christopher Drew Hill on the evening of Oct. 16, 2019, after seeing his vehicle leave a known drug area. Cox listed a lack of tag lights as probable cause for conducting the stop. However, Hill disputed the allegation and proclaimed the tag lights were functioning properly when questioned that night.
Cox then contacted Cherokee Indian Police Officer Zack Shivers, who wrote in his report that Cox told him he had information alleging Hill was transporting narcotics into Graham County. Shortly after Shivers arrived with his K-9, Hill fled the scene, resulting in a chase.
Court documents say Shivers did not see Hill’s tag lights malfunction during the chase, which ended with Hill being charged with eluding arrest and assault on a government official, both felonies.
In her motion for suppression of evidence and dismissal of all charges, Christy argues that Hill had the right to flee and resist an “unlawful arrest” because Cox did not have probable cause to stop the vehicle nor search it with a K-9. She argues that Cox never took action in furtherance of investigating the alleged traffic infraction but rather launched a drug probe based on a hunch.
“Where this court must only rely upon the word of a law enforcement officer who has already been determined by two federal judges to have provided ‘patently false’ testimony, such that he will never be used in a federal case again, it cannot give him the benefit of the doubt and must be highly skeptical of his testimony of a malfunctioning tag light as the sole basis for all that followed,” Christy wrote in her motion.
Graham County Sheriff Jerry Crisp said he’s known about Tompkins’ letter regarding Cox; however, the state District Attorney’s Office does not agree with federal officials.
“After a full review, the state DA prior to Ashley Welch said they’re not recognizing this because it’s a sham, so Deputy Cox continued to work,” Crisp told the Scout. “Then, when Welch came into office, she reviewed the entire case and made the same determination. Our ADA is going to be fighting this Thursday, and Deputy Cox has the full support of the DA’s office.”
The Graham County Sheriff’s Office made front-page headlines last year, when two former deputies filed separate lawsuits alleging a culture of lying, mishandling of evidence and improper use of confidential informants exists within the department.
A judge is expected to hear Christy’s motion Thursday, when Hill appears in court.