Rockhead "leadership" delivers slap across the face

Last night's town board meeting felt eerily familiar: like the days when commissioners hijacked the will of the people to instead dole out personal favors and paybacks.

Sadly, it happened while commissioners were voting to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Mac Herring, a commissioner who utilized his role as town historian to build bridges between old and new Mooresville after those bridges had been torched in the early- to mid-2000s.

On Monday, town commissioners voted 3-2 to appoint former Commissioner Danny Beaver - a man who the people of Mooresville ousted from local government in 2007 - to serve the two years remaining in Herring's term. The vote, not surprisingly, was split down an old, familiar line: "old Mooresville" versus "new." Ward 2 Commissioner Thurman Houston, At-large Commissioner Bobby Compton and Ward 1 Commissioner Eddie Dingler voted for Beaver's appointment. At-large Commissioner David Coble and Ward 4 Commissioner Lisa Qualls dissented. And they didn't shy away from explaining why:

"Mr. Beaver served for eight years, and it was not a good time for Mooresville," said Coble after Houston made the motion to appoint Beaver to the board. Coble had made a motion for the appointment of another candidate, Gary West, which was seconded by Qualls but died for lack of support. Coble reminded the board that Beaver, then an at-large commissioner, lost his bid for re-election in 2007 when current-Mayor Miles Atkins ran a campaign against him "centered on ethics in government."

At that time, Beaver had voted to hand a multi-million-dollar contract to a town friend rather than follow the recommendation of town staff in the hiring of an engineering firm for Mooresville's wastewater treatment plant expansion. Town staff said the firm that commissioners eventually chose was too expensive. Those town staff members were later fired. Then the Mooresville community fired back by ousting Beaver and Frank Owens, who was surprisingly also among the town's four finalists for Herring's replacement. Owens made a run against Herring for his seat just two years ago and was rejected by the town's Ward 3 voters.

Beaver's controversial past on Mooresville's town board didn't seem to matter to Commissioners Compton and Dingler or to Houston, who himself was appointed to the board in 2006, thanks to a strong push by none other than - you guessed it - then-Commissioner Beaver.

Houston, Compton and Dingler on Monday cited "experience" in their choice to return Beaver to the board.

But is Beaver's brand of experience in the best interest of the town?

Coble and Qualls said, unequivocally, no.

Using the word "tumultuous" to describe the years Beaver was in office - and reminding fellow commissioners of the many State Bureau of Investigation probes into the town during that time - Qualls said she was "disappointed" that the majority of the town board seemed okay with moving Mooresville "backwards."

Coble said that the citizens he spoke with during the selection process for Herring's replacement "overwhelmingly said they wanted our choice to be about moving Mooresville forward."

Houston said Beaver is "connected" in Mooresville and that the former commissioner's "integrity is very great" and that he's "an asset to this board." He said that Gary West and Michelle Beam - the other two finalists out of the original 13 applicants - were too inexperienced to serve. "They haven't participated in anything," he said, adding that maybe they'd be more qualified after they "get a little more involved in the community."

That didn't sit well with Qualls, who quipped: "Every one of us was brand new once."

Qualls herself was originally appointed to the town board in 2012.

She said that choosing Beaver was "a slap in the face to the new people who planned to get involved."

I would take that a step further ...

Last night's decision was a slap in the face to the people of this town who, when given a choice, ousted Danny Beaver from local government. It was a slap in the face to the residents of Ward 3 who, when given a choice, chose a person like Mac Herring to represent them. Danny Beaver's style could not be any more opposite from Herring's. Though local-government politics are non-partisan, Beaver is known to be a rockhead conservative, while we used to tease Herring about being a "bleeding-heart liberal." Herring was gentle and compassionate: sometimes, I'd tell him, to a fault. He talked often of building bridges and of his respect for town staff and of his love for the Town of Mooresville and of his dream to see the town continue to move forward and away from the scandals and controversies that defined it in the early- to mid-2000s.

For those reasons, Beaver's appointment last night was also a slap in the face to Mac Herring.

Shame on the three commissioners who delivered it.

Owens should have let sleeping dogs lie

Mooresville citizens ousted Frank Owens from the town board in 2005 after two terms, the last of which was wracked by controversy and scandal.

He was sent packing rather quietly, considering the political atmosphere and sentiment at the time.

But now, eight years later, he has tossed his hat back in the ring, targeting the Ward 3 seat currently occupied by Mac Herring.

Owens has claimed that he is running for office because Herring voted to saddle Mooresville residents with MI-Connection, a $92.5 million cable company that Owens says the town had no business purchasing. And I fully agree with him on that.

But then Owens decided to get a little nit-picky. He recently went digging through his opponent's 2012 county vehicle-tax records and then broke his neck tattle-telling to the Mooresville Tribune about a $88.86 delinquency on Herring's part, which even a county collections official called “very common.” The Tribune contacted Herring, who paid the tax bill before the article was even published in the paper.

Owens attempted to use this as a chance to show, even further, that Herring is irresponsible with money, stating in the Tribune: “What does it say about a commissioner that uses tax dollars from the town and the county and does not pay all of his county tax dollars?” 

Herring's delinquent tax bill was $88.86. If Herring's vote for MI-Connection is Owens' only real talking-point during this campaign, which seems to be the case, then we need to compare apples to apples.

In 2005, Frank Owens rubber-stamped handing a $25 million engineering contract on what would later become an estimated $150 million project to a town-board friend, voting against the recommendation of town engineers who said the expansion of Mooresville's wastewater treatment plant should be completed by a more qualified (and overall less costly) firm.

At one point in Mooresville's history, such a decision would have slid right through, possibly without the public even knowing. But decades of backwoods dealings and good-ol'-boy politics came to an end in the early- to mid-2000s in Mooresville, when the sleepy town was rocked by one scandal after another, all while Owens sat on the town board. With support from the local media and new blood on the board, a new plan was created for the wastewater treatment plant expansion, which meant the overall price was lowered. And the firm that had originally been deemed most qualified by town engineers was given a supervisory role over the former board's choice of CH2M Hill.

But that didn't happen before the town's manager – apparently based primarily on commissioners' persuasion, including (by then former) Commissioner Owens – fired the town's engineer and utilities director, both of whom had vehemently stood up for the best interest of the town's taxpayers against Owens and his ilk … and in spite of personal risk. One commissioner said that the personnel files of the two employees were “completely empty” of any prior disciplinary action at the time of their firings. For more on the CH2M Hill scandal, click here and here. 

But the CH2M Hill controversy was just the tip of the iceberg.

Also during Owens' last four years as commissioner:

• In 2001, Mooresville's librarian was indicted and later pleaded guilty to embezzlement for using public money for her private use. But her indictment came in spite of an apathetic Mooresville Town Board and only after an activist blew the whistle and persistently demanded that something be done about it. She also went to the press. An independent review by the Mooresville Tribune raised the possibility that tens of thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise had been stolen from or through the library for half-a-dozen years before the indictment. 
• In 2003, the town's former internal auditor, whose job it was to help prevent financial mismanagement and possible theft like that which had occurred at the library just a couple years prior, stated publicly for the first time that the town lacked financial controls and that her detection of those deficiencies – and her insistence that the town institute change – is likely what led to her firing after only eight months on the job. 
• In 2004, the then-town manager fired the new town librarian, supposedly for spending more than town policy allowed for a meal. This resulted in another black eye on the town because of widespread scrutiny from newspapers and local television news about the overspending habits of Mooresville's government, primarily via travel and dining expenses. 
• In 2005, despite the town having a full-time auditor, a finance director and an outside accounting firm that annually conducted an audit of the town's books, it once again took a concerned citizen – through his own volunteer financial probe – to identify a shortage in the inventory at the Mooresville Municipal Golf Course, which was already operationally bathed in red ink. A follow-up audit of the golf inventory showed about $5,000 of missing merchandise from the golf course pro shop. An editorial in the Mooresville Tribune stated: “The litany of mismanagement gets longer and longer, our town commissioners say little about it, and you, the taxpayers, foot the bill.”
• Also in early 2006 - just after Owens was voted off the town board - the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) visited the Town of Mooresville and confiscated town computers. To date, no one knows what the FBI was looking for, but most assume it had something to do with the town board, against procedure, granting its friend's engineering firm the lucrative $25 million engineering contract for the wastewater treatment plant expansion. One former commissioner said the FBI told commissioners that the agents were looking into actions of prior town-board members. He said he was specifically asked by the FBI if he thought former commissioners were receiving “kick-backs” for preferential awarding of contracts. “I don't believe they received money for it,” he said, “but it certainly showed poor judgment.”

And now word is finally public about a 2001 FBI investigation into Owens for public corruption, following a state probe into a Mooresville gambling hut. 

One former public official, during an interview about the investigation, said: “Frank Owens has a pattern of abusing power, whether it's as a police officer or a commissioner.

“We have gotten past the yahoo-style of government and crookedness and the 'you-aren't-my-friend-anymore' high-school politics.”

I could not agree more. A vote for Frank Owens on Tuesday is a vote to move Mooresville backwards. It's really just that simple.

Two years ago, commenters on this blog resurrected the issue of Owens' gambling and the 2001 FBI investigation. Owens contacted me via private message on Facebook at that time, asking me to remove the comments and to contact him. I did call him, and while stating that he was "just trying to lead a good, Christian life," he insisted that the gambling accusations were false. He offered to meet with me and tell “the truth” about what "had really happened." I saw no need; after all, he was a private citizen at the time, which meant that whatever had gone on in his private life was no longer the public's concern. Still, his behavior while he was a commissioner was and is fair-game for public scrutiny.

Now that he's running again for public office, the fact that he was investigated by the FBI for public corruption has become relevant for reporting; Owens' personal character is once again the public's business.

But Owens has clammed up again. He apparently doesn't want to talk about the scandal anymore; he still has not responded to Report questions sent in mid-October about his involvement in illegal gambling and the 2001 FBI investigation and grand jury. And the only thing that has changed from two years ago, when he wanted to talk about it, until now is that he's eyeballing a seat on Mooresville's town board.

Yes, Mac Herring, the Ward 3 incumbent, voted for MI-Connection during his first term on the town board. He made, in my opinion, a multi-million-dollar mistake. And I don't take that lightly. But if Herring's vote was so heinous, why did no one challenge him when he sought (and won) re-election in 2009? If Owens' motivation is to remove Herring from office to, as he claims, protect the taxpayers from a tax-and-spender, why did he wait another four years to do it? He could have run against Herring in 2009, but he didn't. In fact, no one did. Herring ran unopposed.

I was here, with a front-row seat, when Owens was last a commissioner. He and other board members gave the town one black eye after another. Far from being apologetic, they banned together and thumbed their noses at the public, over and over. Visits from SBI and FBI agents became almost commonplace. Shameful reports by newspapers and television news stations were plentiful; in fact, the material that Owens and other town-board members gave the Mooresville Tribune was enough to fill a wall with awards for investigative reporting and community service. The town became a laughingstock, notorious for scandal and controversy.

It was an ugly, politically restless period in Mooresville's history. I don't want to see it repeated, nor do I believe that anyone who was on the board at that time deserves a second chance to govern and shape policy in this town.

Herring voted for MI-Connection. But the SBI has not been in Mooresville since he's been a commissioner. The FBI hasn't visited, either, except – in the first few months of Herring's first term – to look into the actions of Owens and his fellow town-board members.

The public is smart enough to draw its own conclusions about that. And come what may on Tuesday.

Iredell sheriff, deputy respond to lawsuit

Iredell County Sheriff Phil Redmond and Deputy Ben Jenkins are denying all accusations that Suzanne Wick and Lisa Mangiardi leveled against them earlier this year in a sexual-harassment lawsuit.

The two mens' response, filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, requests that the case be dismissed based on a lack of information.

Wick and Mangiardi, both who turned to the Iredell County Sheriff's Office for help when they found themselves in abusive relationships at home, say Jenkins - a detective at the time - sexually harassed and stalked them at a time when they needed police protection the most. The two women are suing Redmond for neglecting to act on information in Wick's formal complaint about Jenkins' misconduct. Redmond demoted Jenkins to jailer after Wick complained, but Jenkins is now a road patrolman and remains on active duty at the Iredell County Sheriff's Office.

For more information on Redmond and Jenkins' response, visit www.wbtv.com or www.statesville.com.

WSOC to confront Iredell's sheriff

WSOC-TV Channel 9 says it has asked the Iredell County Sheriff's Office why Deputy Ben Jenkins is still on active duty, despite a second woman now accusing him of sexual harassment. The news station says it will broadcast the story at noon and on its afternoon broadcasts, beginning at 5 p.m.

Updated after the noon broadcast: According to WSOC Channel 9, the Iredell County Sheriff's Office says "the lawsuit is in their attorney's hands." Of the ICSO, the news reporter said, "they refuse to comment." Click here to watch the noon broadcast.

Second woman comes forward, accuses deputy of sexual harassment

WARNING: Please be advised that the article below contains disturbing and explicit language, much of it sexual in nature. While most of the mainstream media will likely not report on the explicits once they hear about today's filing, I feel it is important to relay the full and uncensored – albeit disturbing – details of this story.


Another victim of domestic assault is accusing Iredell County Sheriff's Deputy Ben Jenkins of sexually harassing and stalking her at a time when she needed law-enforcement protection the most.

Lisa Mangiardi - an Asheville resident and former criminal court mediator at the Iredell County Courthouse - added her name to a sexual-harassment lawsuit originally filed March 21 by Kannapolis resident Suzanne Wick. The updated lawsuit, which lists both Jenkins and Sheriff Phil Redmond as defendants, was filed late this afternoon in Iredell County Superior Court by Charlotte Attorney Joshua Van Kampen.

Mangiardi came forward after hearing of Wick's lawsuit against Jenkins and Redmond. “Lisa has been filled with misplaced guilt that Defendant Jenkins might not have been in a position to abuse Suzanne had Lisa complained earlier,” states the suit.

Wick and Mangiardi are seeking more than $10,000 in damages. 

Mangiardi, who has a masters degree in education, was hired as a part-time criminal court mediator at the Iredell County courthouse in or around September 2007. She started working full-time about a year later.

“Tellingly, it was not until Defendant Jenkins learned that Lisa was a domestic violence victim that he started to stalk and sexually harass her,” the suit reads. “She had worked in the courthouse for months before filing domestic violence charges and Defendant Jenkins had not pursued her.

“Sadly, based on Lisa and Suzanne's experiences, defendant Jenkins deliberately targets domestic violence victims because they are desperate and more vulnerable to abuse.”

Mangiardi says she turned to the Iredell County Sheriff's Office because her ex-husband was physically abusive toward her and their two children. On May 28, 2008, things turned especially violent when he “went on a rant while walking around with a knife in his back pocket,” the suit reads.

It says Mangiardi's ex-husband “threatened that he would make Lisa suffer long, painfully and slowly and that he would … end it for everyone.” Later that day, Mangiardi's ex-husband – still with the knife in his pocket – said “if he was going to pay then everyone would pay,” the lawsuit reads.

The following day, Mangiardi sought help from the Iredell County Sheriff's Office's Special Victims Unit; Detective Ernie Line – who, according to the lawsuit, was Jenkins' partner at the time – was assigned to the case.

A temporary restraining order (TRO) was issued against Mangiardi's ex-husband on May 29, 2008, and he was arrested on charges of assault on a female and communicating threats. “On June 8, 2008, the Court entered a Memorandum of Judgment," the suit states.

It says it was at that time that Mangiardi officially met Jenkins: “It appeared to Lisa at first that Defendant Jenkins was genuinely offering his support and assistance, and she needed that."


But things changed on or about June 14, 2008, when Mangiardi's ex-husband unexpectedly showed up at her house. Mangiardi believed the visit was in violation of the protective order, the suit states, and she was "confused about whether the TRO was still in place and the extent of protection from contact she had under the Memorandum of Judgment.”

At that time, according to the lawsuit, Jenkins told Mangiardi that “she should call him personally if the ex-husband came to the house again.

“He also encouraged her to meet him at the Sheriff's Domestic Violence Unit so that he could review the Memorandum of Judgment and see what he could do to help her.”

Mangiardi met with Jenkins at the sheriff's office, as the then-detective requested. It was after 5 p.m., so the sheriff's office was “relatively empty,” the suit reads.

“Defendant Jenkins escorted Lisa to an office and closed both doors, which left both of them alone. After closing the doors, Jenkins began grinding his hips and telling her, 'don't you want this,'” the suit states. “Lisa was shocked, but firmly told Defendant Jenkins that she was not interested.

“Jenkins sat down at his desk and continued gyrating in his seat, while trying to persuade Lisa to have sex with him and that no one would have to know,” the suit continues. “At one point, Jenkins also grabbed his penis and shook it, again suggesting that Lisa 'wanted this.'

Deputy Ben Jenkins

“With the doors closed, and Defendant Jenkins' status in the Domestic Violence Unit, not to mention the gun on his hip, Lisa did not feel free to go until Defendant Jenkins dismissed her,” the suit reads.

Mangiardi, like Wick, says Jenkins also stalked her: “He often reported knowing her location or inquired why she was here or there. He told her that he had been outside her house,” the lawsuit states. “Defendent Jenkins also acted very jealous and angrily accused Lisa of 'fucking' other men.”

While Mangiardi was working at the courthouse, she would routinely see Jenkins there. “During these times … Jenkins routinely simulated oral sex in Lisa's direction by pressing his tongue to his cheek and using his hand to simulate a penis entering his mouth,” the suit reads. “While doing the gesture, he would solicit Lisa for sex.

“On many other occasions, he put two fingers in a 'V' shape to his mouth and flickered his tongue simulating oral sex on a woman, while again soliciting her for sex,” it continues. “On at least one occasion in the courthouse, Defendant Jenkins also grabbed his penis and shook it, while coaxing Lisa about 'how badly she knew she wanted it'.”

The suit says Jenkins – through May 2009 – made unwelcome comments to Mangiardi, such as, “can I put my hands up your skirt?,” “just let me get a feel,” “give me a piece of that ass,” “everyone needs a friend with benefits,” “you're making me so horny,” and “I know you want it; come on, no one will ever know.”

The suit states that “several other sexual harassment incidents occurred at a Mexican restaurant near the courthouse.” There, Jenkins – often accompanied by Ernie Line - “would invite themselves to the table where Lisa was eating," the suit states. 

Jenkins would “relentlessly (tell) Lisa all the reasons why she should have sex with him. On several occasions, he also pressed his body against hers in the booth or table," it reads.

“Lisa eventually stopped eating there to avoid Defendant Jenkins.”

The lawsuit says the incidents also occurred outside the courthouse and around neighboring buildings: “On or about May 11 or 12, 2009, Defendant Jenkins gave Lisa a 'hug' for Mother's Day in an area outside the courthouse that included slipping his hands down the backside of Lisa's skirt.”

Also that month, Mangiardi says Jenkins saw her in a conference room at the Iredell County Jail while she was there for a mediation. “He stopped in the doorway and grabbed his penis and motioned with his other hand that she should call him,” the suit states.

During the time of the alleged harassment, Mangiardi “suffered extreme anxiety and depression and was diagnosed with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)," according to the lawsuit.

“As a single mother of four and already deathly afraid of her ex-husband, Lisa feared she could not afford the risk of reporting Defendant Jenkins,” the suit states. “Instead, she put her head down and suffered through, so she could support her family and be safe.”

But once Mangiardi read of Wick's lawsuit, she decided to come forward. The lawsuit says that Mangiardi felt guilty about what happened to Wick because she feels she could have possibly prevented it from happening if she had complained earlier. “In reality,” states the suit, “given Defendant Redmond's woeful track record of holding his deputies accountable, it's at least as likely that Defendant Redmond would not have taken effective remedial action even had she complained.”

Iredell County Sheriff Phil Redmond

Jenkins' alleged harassment of Mangiardi ended in May 2009. Interestingly, Suzanne Wick says he began harassing her in February or March of that same year.

Jenkins, 45, began working for the sheriff's office in August 2002 and was demoted from his position as detective in 2009 after Wick complained of his sexual advances.


Redmond is named in the women's lawsuit for neglecting to act on Wick's information and complaints against Jenkins.

One week after Redmond was most recently re-elected as Iredell County's sheriff, Jenkins began being promoted, from jailer back to deputy sheriff in November 2010. He was promoted back to detective on Nov. 7, 2011. But just two weeks after he was promoted, on Nov. 23, 2011, he was demoted back to deputy sheriff.

He is currently a road patrolman, making $38,972.04 a year.

Sheriff's office politics protect a select few

Are the rules the same for all employees of Iredell County Sheriff Phil Redmond?

It is becoming increasingly clear that the answer to that question is no.

Deputy Ben Jenkins, as of this week, is still actively employed by the Iredell County Sheriff's Office, despite being sued on March 21 by a Kannapolis woman for sexual harassment and stalking.

Suzanne Wick, who had turned to the sheriff's office for help and protection against a physically abusive husband, states in her lawsuit that Jenkins – a detective in the sheriff's Domestic Violence Unit at that time – sexually harassed her, stalked her and threatened to drop charges against her abusive husband if she did not respond to Jenkins' sexual advances. Read the entire story here.

But in 2010, the sheriff fired and charged one of his own deputies the very night the deputy's girlfriend accused him of abusing her while he was off-duty at home. The deputy, Dennis Huffstickler, was later cleared by the courts of any wrongdoing.

Huffstickler said the top brass at the sheriff's office indicated he was being fired because the incident took place during an election year, in 2010. Not only did Huffstickler lose his job, he spent 48 hours in an isolation jail cell in another county. He also lost his law enforcement certification when the sheriff decided not to hold it for him – even after he was found not-guilty – which means he cannot practice law enforcement until he completes Basic Law Enforcement Training again.

Huffstickler said he would find out, by the time the 2010 election was over, just how political his firing really was.

It was Jan. 16, 2010 – just a few months shy of the primary to elect the Republican candidate for Iredell County's sheriff. Phil Redmond was running for his fourth term.

In a handwritten statement provided to the Report, Huffstickler said he and his girlfriend were arguing at his home, and he was trying to remove their son from the volatile situation. “She had been drinking,” Huffstickler recalled. “We were going to go away until she was sober.”

But when he took their son to the car, Huffstickler said his girlfriend hit him on the head with a video camera, took their son out of his car seat and locked herself in the bathroom at Huffstickler's home. He said at that point, his girlfriend called 911 and started kicking the door to make noise. “I heard her tell the operator she needed help,” Huffstickler said. “She told them I was trying to kill her and her baby.”

After an argument earlier that month, Huffstickler said he approached a lieutenant at the sheriff's office and confided in him about the situation: “I wanted to have (my girlfriend) removed from my home without getting law enforcement involved,” Huffstickler said. “I did not want to do anything to embarrass the sheriff's office.”

Huffstickler called that lieutenant while his girlfriend was on the phone with 911. “He told me to go outside and wait for the sheriff's office,” Huffstickler recalled. “I went outside and waited. I never put a hand on her.”

Huffstickler said that Deputy Gene Hayes, Lt. Mike Bova and Sgt. Atley Brown arrived at his home. “There may have been others,” he said. “Bova told my mother that nobody was going to be arrested that night.”

Huffstickler said Bova told him that “all of us were going to the sheriff's office and we were going to talk with Chief (Rick) Dowdle and Capt. Harold Miller.”

He said neither he nor his girlfriend were handcuffed while they were transported to the sheriff's office in separate cars. Huffstickler said he rode in the front passenger's seat of Sgt. Brown's vehicle.

“When we got to the sheriff's office, we were placed in interview rooms alone,” Huffstickler recalled. He said he completed a statement and gave it to Hayes.

Huffstickler said that about 45 minutes later, Deputy Hayes informed him that his girlfriend had been charged after blowing a .16 on an intoxilyzer test.

“Gene Hayes walked me over to Capt. Miller's office,” Huffstickler recalled. “When I walked in the room, Capt. Miller said, 'I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Your services are no longer needed at the sheriff's office.” Huffstickler said at least two other sheriff's office employees were present in the room.

Huffstickler said he asked Miller if he was interested in his side of the story. “Capt. Miller said, 'I will put it to you like this: it is an election year,'” Huffstickler recalled.

Miller retired from the sheriff's office just two weeks ago.

After Miller told Huffstickler he was fired, he also informed him that he was being charged. “Capt. Miller told me I was being escorted to Davie County Correction Center and that I was being charged with assault on a female,” Huffstickler said.

“I thanked Capt. Miller for the opportunity to work there. I kept thinking to myself that they would find out the truth. I thought I would be back at work when they did.

“I went to Davie County and was placed in an isolation cell,” Huffstickler said. “I was there 48 hours.”

He said Iredell County Lt. Guy Jenkins picked him up from Davie County and transported him back to the magistrate's office in Statesville.

Huffstickler later obtained a protective order against his girlfriend.

“I called the sheriff's office numerous times,” he said. During one of those calls, he said he told Capt. Darren Campbell to interview his girlfriend and that she would confess that Huffstickler did not assault her.

“Nobody ever did anything,” Huffstickler said.

Still, the State Bureau of Investigation was called in: “I was contacted by an agent named Renee,” Huffstickler said. “She asked if I would agree to an interview. I told her yes. Renee and another agent met me at my house, and I completed a one-hour interview with them.

“Several months later, my case went to court in front of Judge Debra Brown,” Huffstickler recalled. “The court found me to be not guilty.”

Feeling that he had been betrayed by the Iredell County Sheriff's Office, Huffstickler said he had no interest in working for Redmond again. However, he hoped the sheriff would agree to hold his certification so he could find a job in law enforcement somewhere else.

For law-enforcement officers to be hired, their certification must be held by an approved agency. If within one year the officers do not find an agency willing to hold their certifications, they have to start over with Basic Law Enforcement Training if they decide to enter the law-enforcement profession again.

Shortly after Huffstickler was cleared by the court, the former deputy ran into the sheriff at a grocery store. “He was at Food Lion on Wilkesboro Highway,” Huffstickler recalled. “I asked the sheriff if he would be willing to hold my certification since I was found not guilty.

“He said yes and told me to contact Capt. Marty Byers.” Byers, at that time, supervised personnel at the sheriff's office.

By this time, Redmond had won the county's Republican primary and was facing a Democratic challenger in the November 2010 general election.

Huffstickler said before he was able to reach Byers – and a couple days after the grocery-store encounter with Redmond – Capt. Darren Campbell and Lt. Andy Poteat visited him at his home. “It was about 4 or 5 p.m.; they were riding in a pick-up truck,” Huffstickler recalled. “Darren told me the sheriff had said what a good officer I was and how much they needed me. Darren asked me when I wanted to come back to work.

“I told him I could not work for a man that treated me the way (Redmond) did,” Huffstickler recalled.

“Darren said there was nothing they could have done because the SBI had gotten involved.”

Huffstickler said he reiterated to Campbell that he had no interest in returning to the Iredell County Sheriff's Office. “I said I only wanted my certification held,” he recalled.

Huffstickler could not have anticipated what came next: “Darren asked if I wanted a 'Re-elect Phil Redmond' sign in my yard,” Huffstickler recalled. “He had a sign in his truck.”

Huffstickler declined: “I told him to hang on to the sign.”

It appears that decision sealed Huffstickler's fate: “When I finally spoke with Marty Byers, he told me Sheriff Redmond had told him he did not intend to hold my certification.”

Soon thereafter, a comment appeared in The Gatton Report, detailing Huffstickler's visit from Campbell and Poteat. “I was still wanting my certification held because it was about to run out, so I called Darren Campbell,” Huffstickler recalled in his statement provided to the Report. “Darren said he did not want to talk to me. He accused me of talking to Jaime Gatton. He asked me who I had talked to and told about the visit he made.

“I told him I had confided in a friend,” Huffstickler said. “He asked who it was, but I would not tell him.

“Darren said if I scratched his back, he would scratch mine. He said he would talk to the sheriff and told me to think about it,” Huffsticker said. “I never heard anything from him.

“My certification ran out on Jan. 16, 2011.”

Huffstickler said while the sheriff's office fought his unemployment-benefits claim, the Employment Security Commission sided with the fired deputy and awarded him unemployment benefits.

Campbell has not responded to a Report e-mail this week, asking to clarify his back-scratching statement and if his visit to Huffstickler's home with Redmond's campaign sign was a “quid pro quo.”

Redmond also did not respond to a Report e-mail, asking if he decided not to hold Huffstickler's certification as a result of Huffstickler refusing to support the sheriff's reelection bid by placing a campaign sign in his yard. The Report also asked the sheriff how he justifies retaining some accused employees but firing others. He did not respond.

The stories of Huffstickler and Jenkins are parallel in some ways and vastly different in others. Let's review:

Huffstickler was off-duty when his girlfriend accused him of assaulting her. Jenkins is being sued for sexually harassing a woman in his capacity as a detective with the Iredell County Sheriff's Office's Domestic Violence Unit.

The SBI was called in to investigate Huffstickler. To date, it appears no one has asked the SBI to investigate the potentially criminal allegations made in the lawsuit against Jenkins.

Huffstickler was cleared of wrongdoing by the courts after his girlfriend admitted she had made up the allegations against him. The jury is still out on Jenkins. Wick's attorney, Joshua Van Kampen of Charlotte, filed the lawsuit against Jenkins and Sheriff Phil Redmond – stating Redmond neglected to act on Wick's complaints of sexual harassment – on March 21. The sheriff's office has 30 days from the date of that filing to respond.

Huffstickler's incident took place during an election year. Jenkins was sued while Redmond still has two years left in his term.

Huffstickler lost his job immediately. The sheriff's office charged him with assault and took him to a Davie County jail cell where he was locked up for 48 hours in isolation. The sheriff also refused to hold Huffstickler's certification, even after the former deputy was proven innocent of the charges against him.

Jenkins, on the other hand, is still actively employed at the sheriff's office, and “nothing has been received in HR advising us he has been suspended,” Iredell County Human Resources Director Sandra Gregory said this week, responding to Report questions.


According to his public personnel information, Jenkins was demoted from detective to jailer shortly after Wick says she complained to the sheriff's office about Jenkins' misconduct in 2009. Interestingly, however, just eight days after Redmond secured his November 2010 re-election, he began promoting Jenkins, from jailer to deputy sheriff, then one year later, from deputy to detective. But after just two weeks back as a detective in November 2011, Jenkins was demoted once again to deputy sheriff.

So, what gives? Why are the “rules” bent for some and strictly enforced on others? And what exactly are the rules? Are the sheriff's standards determined by election cycles?

Why was Huffstickler fired because of an accusation but Jenkins remains actively employed? Why is another deputy, Tommy Adams, still employed by the sheriff's office – albeit on unpaid leave – following a grand-jury indictment of obstruction of justice in December 2010?

Why did the sheriff's office leave Huffstickler locked up in a jail cell for 48 hours but continued to pay Adams' public cell phone for four months after he was indicted and then suspended from the sheriff's office?

And perhaps most important: What kind of environment does Sheriff Phil Redmond's selective leniency create for the other deputies currently working for him? What kind of message does this send to them?

Where are the county commissioners?

While Iredell commissioners found time this week to weigh in on the issue of gay marriage, they haven't been so forthcoming about their opinions on a county sheriff's deputy being sued for sexual harassment.

In fact, only one of five county commissioners – interestingly, the only female on the board – has responded to Report questions about whether the board of commissioners would consider calling for an external investigation of the potential criminal allegations made in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed this week by Suzanne Wick against Deputy Ben Jenkins and Sheriff Phil Redmond. For the full story, click here.

Commissioner Renee Griffith did not say whether she would support an external investigation, saying only that she planned to look into the matter further once she returns from being out of town next week: “When I get back and have some time to talk to the count [sic] attorney, the sheriffs [sic] department, other commissioners, research my responsibility as a commissioner, and read the law suit I will be happy to comment on the case,” Griffith said, adding that she doesn't have enough information right now to make a public statement.

Iredell County Commissioner Ken Robertson is reportedly out of the country, which is apparently why he did not respond.

In addition to Commissioners Steve Johnson, Marvin Norman and Frank Mitchell, Iredell County Manager Ron Smith did not respond to Report questions.

In an e-mail to the Report this weekend, Griffith said: “I don't want to rush to any judgement about the Sheriff department or mrs watt [sic]. I think is [sic] important that this be handled appropriately.”

Accused deputy still employed by sheriff

Ben Jenkins, the sheriff's deputy that a Kannapolis woman is suing for sexual harassment, is still employed today as a patrol deputy with the Iredell County Sheriff's Office.

But Capt. Harold Miller, who has been with the sheriff's office since 1994, retired unexpectedly this week, according to Capt. Marty Byers, personnel director for the sheriff's office. The timing of Miller's retirement does not appear to be related to the lawsuit filed this week by Suzanne Wick against Jenkins and Sheriff Phil Redmond.

Sheriff's Deputy Ben Jenkins

Wick says that Jenkins – a detective at the time with the ICSO's Domestic Violence Unit - sexually harassed and stalked her in early 2009 while she was working through the sheriff's office to charge her then-husband with domestic abuse.

Wick's ex-husband pleaded guilty in January to domestic-violence charges.

Byers said today the sheriff's office still employs Jenkins as a patrol deputy.

Jenkins, 45, who began working for the sheriff's office in August 2002, was demoted from his position as detective in 2009 after Wick apparently complained of his sexual advances, which she says began in February or March of that year – just about a month after she first approached the sheriff's office for help in filing charges against her abusive husband.

Public information in Jenkins' personnel file seems to corroborate the timeline of events in Wick's lawsuit:

According to the suit, on or about April 19, 2009 – just two days before Iredell County's personnel file shows Jenkins was suspended and three days before he was placed on administrative leave – two men, presumably from the sheriff's office, interviewed Wick about Jenkins' conduct in her case.

“A few days later,” the suit reads, “the two individuals reported back that they corroborated misconduct by Jenkins.” It says the two men asked Wick what she wanted them to do, and “she said that Jenkins should lose his job because she feared that Jenkins would do this to another woman.

“Shockingly,” the suit reads, “the Sheriff's Office refused to terminate Jenkins. Shortly after that, the two men reported back that Jenkins was demoted to jailor.”

The county's personnel information seems to corroborate that. It states that on May 4, 2009 Jenkins' position was reclassified from detective to jailer.

Sheriff Phil Redmond

Last year, the suit states, it was discovered that the sheriff's office attempted to restore Jenkins to a detective position but that “the Gaston County Domestic Violence Protective Council and/or elements within the District Attorney's Office may have opposed the move and Sheriff Redmond subsequently moved Jenkins to a patrol position.”

Jenkins' public personnel information shows that he was, in fact, promoted back to detective on Nov. 7, 2011 (after he had moved from jailer to deputy sheriff in November 2010). But just two weeks after he was promoted, on Nov. 23, 2011, he was demoted back to deputy sheriff.

He is currently a road patrolman, making $38,972.04 a year.

Redmond is named in the suit for neglecting to act on information about Jenkins' misconduct.

For the full story, click here. 

As for Harold Miller's retirement: Human Resources Director Sandra Gregory said this afternoon that her department has not yet received paperwork verifying Miller's retirement. But ICSO Capt. Marty Byers, in an e-mail to the Report this afternoon, confirmed that Miller is, in fact, “a retired employee from the Sheriff's Office.”

Miller, 63, started working for the sheriff's office in December 1994. His salary, according to information on file with the county, was $62,025.19. 

Victimizing the victim?: Lawsuit filed against Iredell sheriff and deputy

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