Bear Paw – Law enforcement officials will not face criminal prosecution for their involvement in a December 2022 SWAT raid that left a local resident shot and severely wounded as he complied with their commands.
A special prosecutor assigned to review potential criminal conduct by police officers decided no charges are warranted.
The target of the SWAT incident, Jason Harley Kloepfer, survived after being shot by three of the SWAT team members. His wife, Alison Mahler, was with him at the time and in the line of fire but escaped injury. She was held in custody following the shooting before she was released without charges.
A number of charges against Kloepfer were also later dropped after he revealed surveillance video of the raid from inside his home that refuted law enforcement allegations against him. He and Mahler subsequently filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in Asheville against law enforcement directly and indirectly involved in the incident.
His lawyer expressed disappointment about the special prosecutor’s decision.
“The criminal justice system has turned its back on him,” said Ellis Boyle, an attorney with Raleigh-based Ward & Smith P.A.
“I think that I’m not a law enforcement investigator or a criminal prosecutor, but it appears several crimes were committed by law enforcement officers,” Boyle told the Cherokee Scout. “For whatever reason, my client’s only avenue is in civil court.”
Kloepfer was shot twice, with one bullet going through his chest and cutting through his stomach and lining of his heart, cracking his ribs and leaving shrapnel in his chest. A second bullet struck just above his elbow.
Special Prosecutor Lance Sigmon, who was assigned to review the State Bureau of Investigation file, decided not to pursue criminal charges on Dec. 18, 2023 – barely a year after the Dec. 13, 2022, incident.
This was another setback in Kloepfer’s quest against the law enforcement involved in the raid, including the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, the sheriff’s attorney at the time, and Cherokee Indian tribal police and its SWAT team.
In December 2023, the judge in the civil case dismissed the case against the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and Darryl Brown, who was the sheriff’s office attorney at the time. The case remains active against tribal police and SWAT team.
Lawyers are in the discovery phase of that case. The civil case will be tried in federal court in the Western District of North Carolina and is set for summer 2025.
In March 2023, District Attorney Ashley Welch recused herself from prosecuting the case, saying statements to her and her staff by members of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office made her and her assistant district attorney witnesses in the investigation.
On Aug. 7, 2023, Sigmon, a retired criminal prosecutor and Air Force judge advocate from Newton, was appointed as a special prosecutor by the Administrative Office of the Courts to review the incident.
“On Dec. 18, 2023, Mr. Sigmon notified me he had completed his review of N.C. State Bureau of Investigation Case Number 2022-003404 and would not be seeking criminal charges at this time,” Spahos told the Scout. “My agency did not make the decision. Mr. Sigmon is an independent prosecutor that was assigned to review the investigation and make a decision regarding prosecution.”