Murphy – Sheriff’s Lt. Milton “Sport” Teasdale will no longer be called as a prosecution witness in criminal cases after the district attorney told him he has shown a pattern of dishonesty.
District Attorney Ashley Welch notified Teasdale with a confidential letter dated April 1.
“We do not like having to take this action,” Welch wrote, “but the reputation and integrity of both law enforcement and our justice system are at stake in this situation. The credibility of the judicial system rests on the foundation that public servants are truthful with integrity is beyond approach.”
The letter advised Teasdale that he was being subject of a “Giglio” order, which refers to a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prosecutors have a duty to disclose any information that could be used to impeach a prosecution witness – even if the information doesn’t directly relate to guilt or punishment.
“Our office has a constitutional obligation to disclose information that could be used to impeach the testimony of a prosecution witness, including instances of untruthfulness,” Welch said in her letter to Teasdale.
She said her office uncovered “substantial violations” that on more than one occasion, “you were dishonest in either your civil deposition surrounding the Kloepfer case and/or the SBI interview.”
“I am disheartened to inform you that your dishonesty has caused us to conclude that the District Attorney’s Office for the 43rd Prosecutorial District will no longer be able to use you as a witness for the State of North Carolina in any criminal case,” she wrote.
“The burden of the state having to disclose your breaches each time you would be called as a state’s witness, having the defense use evidence of your own conduct to attack your testimony, and then attempting to rehabilitate you by confining a judge or jury that your testimony is both truthful is simply insurmountable,” she said.
Teasdale – who has a long career in law enforcement, including time spent as a school resources officer – was still on the force as of Monday afternoon.
“Human resources has not received a termination date for Mr. Teasdale,” said Mandi Amos of Cherokee County Government Human Resources, responding to rumors asked about by the Cherokee Scout.
“Mr. Teasdale is still employed with Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department as deputy sheriff lieutenant. Mr. Teasdale is not employed with any other department within Cherokee County government.”
Welch’s declaration
Welch described the December 2022 SWAT raid situation in a declaration in the federal civil lawsuit filed by Jason Harley Kloepfer and Allison Mahler in Asheville.
Her declaration showed she was aware of Teasdale’s alleged dishonesty as early as December 2022, but her Giglio order was not issued until more than two years later. DA spokesperson Quintin Ellison said the Giglio order is being issued now “because it is based on new information.”
Welch has been called as a witness in a federal civil suit filed by Kloepfer and Mahler, a married Bear Paw couple whose home was raided by Cherokee Tribal Police SWAT team following a 911 call answered by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office in December 2022.
Kloepfer was awakened by the SWAT team, which opened fire on him as he opened his door trying to comply with orders. He was severely injured during the volley. Mahler was also in the line of fire but uninjured.
Video changes things
Leading up to the raid and immediately following, Kloepfer was portrayed by law enforcement as a threat who possibly kidnapped or killed Mahler. However, video inside the home recorded during the SWAT raid refuted most of law enforcement’s allegations, showing instead a couple asleep in their bed, stirred awake by a loudspeaker issuing orders and a robot drone rolling around their floor.
Welch refused to prosecute Kloepfer on charges filed by the sheriff’s office and later recused herself from the case, saying she could possibly be called as a witness. In her declaration she filed in response to a subpoena in the civil case, Welch made scathing revelations about the sheriff’s office – and Teasdale in particular.
“After I saw the video and became aware of what the SBI uncovered about Emily Floyd’s relationship with law enforcement and that the information received the morning of the shooting from law enforcement was inaccurate, I decided to recuse myself and my office from further investigation into this matter because we would likely become witnesses in this case,” Welch wrote.
“I knew that I could not participate in the investigation when I was also a witness to the fact that the sheriff’s office, through Detective Teasdale, had given me and my office false information, which put us in the position of acting as witnesses. I do not know who Detective Teasdale received his information from.
“When I saw the search warrant that Detective Teasdale obtained for Jason Kloepfer and Ali Mahler’s home later in time, I was shocked to see that it appeared to be for investigating a suspected murder,” she wrote, adding that there was no credible evidence to support such a claim.
“After I became aware of the facts surrounding the shooting of Jason Kloepfer, I instructed my office to drop the criminal charges that the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department had brought against him.”