Andrews – Police Chief Rocky Burrell, family and the town are enduring a multi-level crisis – the chief is gravely ill, but also faces felony criminal charges as Andrews struggles to fill his position with an interim chief.
Burrell has been struggling with cancer this year while at the same time the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation has been looking closely at him for allegedly obtaining property through false pretenses. On Sept. 18, the Cherokee County grand jury indicted Burrell on nine felony counts stemming from the SBI probe.
The N.C. Department of Justice indictments had not been served as of a week later and remained under seal as of Monday. It’s unclear why the arrest warrants remained un-served or whether they affect other law enforcement officers in the area.
Burrell was at the Andrews Board of Aldermen’s Sept. 12 meeting. He has been in Metro Atlanta undergoing cancer treatment since Sept. 18.
The board of aldermen held two special meetings last week while scrambling to fill Burrell’s position. On Sept. 21, the board named Valleytown Fire & Rescue Chief Justin Hyde administrative chief over the Andrews Police Department; however, another meeting was called the next afternoon when it was learned that Hyde could not serve as the chief over two separate departments simultaneously.
At the second meeting, assistant police chief David Southards was named interim police chief; it’s unclear why the board of aldermen didn’t name Southards interim chief in the first place. Southards accidentally shot himself in his leg in the police department parking lot earlier this year.
A Department of Justice official said it is handling Burrell’s case, but they do not comment on active cases.
At the board of aldermen meeting Sept. 12, the board agenda called for a closed session to, among other things, “consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment, or conditions of initial employment of an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee.” There were no details about whether the personnel matter was related to Burrell or some other member of the staff.
Burrell’s situation is the latest in a series of black eyes involving the Andrews Police Department this year and in previous years, and with Cherokee County law enforcement over the last year.
Burrell has been working reduced hours since falling ill at the start of the year. Southards accidentally shot himself in the leg in the police department parking lot and a patrol officer was fired just as a protective order was being sought against her involving a teenager. The officer was later arrested for violating the protective order.
Over the summer, a Cherokee County sheriff’s deputy was arrested for DWI and late last year a Cherokee Tribal Police SWAT team, summoned by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, opened fire on a Bear Paw resident who was attempting to comply with orders, severely wounding him. That incident is the subject of a federal lawsuit.
Town aldermen appointed Burrell chief in August 2021, the eighth person to lead the department in the previous 3½ years.
Burrell was employed as an Andrews police officer for about a year beginning in 1999 and spent 20 years working in law enforcement before starting a private investigations firm called Sabre Group in 2018. He has been employed by several law enforcement agencies throughout western North Carolina, including the sheriff ’s office.
When Burrell, 44, of Marble, became chief, there were several ongoing issues within the department. Local police were barred access to the evidence room as state investigators probed actions from April 2021 that led to most of the police force being fired.
In 2022, Burrell was involved in a bar fight in Andrews. Cherokee County sheriff’s deputy (now Sgt.) Dennis Dore filed signed statement about what he observed at Ronnie’s Bar & Grill, saying a fight occurred between individuals over control of a pool table, including a man who arrived at the bar with an off-duty Burrell.
Dore said he was flagged down by an Andrews police officer as he was leaving the scene. The deputy said he was told by the officer that Burrell instructed him to say “nothing really happened, and there was no need to do a police report.”
At the time, Burrell called the officer a rookie and denied the allegations made in Dore’s report. Burrell said he stopped by the bar to pick up a to-go order pizza and was talking with a manager and others when he was alerted that a fight was taking place, which he assisted in breaking up.
As a young adult, he faced numerous charges out of Graham and Swain counties, including convictions for larceny and simple affray in Graham County in 1995.
In December 2010, Burrell was among several Cherokee County sheriff’s deputies who were fired. The SBI had been investigating the office concerning misuse of grant funds, but it has been unclear whether the firings were related to that SBI investigation.