Eastern NC deputy fired after violent arrest was a ‘wandering officer’
by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press January 31, 2025
A federal judge will decide whether two people have legal standing to sue after being brutalized by Washington County sheriff’s deputies in 2022.
A video of a violent interaction involving Gary Thomas Jr. and Mary Moore outside the courthouse in Plymouth shocked many after it was released.
Now, Thomas and Moore are suing Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy JeffreyEdwards, who was fired days after the incident. They are also bringing claims against officers who failed to intervene and officials for inadequate hiring and training practices.
Carolina Public Press learned that Edwards was previously fired from the State Highway Patrol in 2010. He didn’t work as a law enforcement officer for a decade before being hired by Washington County.
The incident highlights concerns surrounding “wandering officers” — a term used to describe those who continue to work in law enforcement even after being fired.
Washington County clash
According to the complaint, Edwards arrested Thomas for driving with a suspended license and marijuana possession during a March 2022 traffic stop.
Edwards transported Thomas to the Washington County Courthouse in Plymouth, where the jail is located. Deputy Brian Mizelle, who is another defendant in the lawsuit, met Edwards in the courthouse parking lot.
Edwards pulled Thomas, who was handcuffed, out of his police car and pushed him against the vehicle, according to the complaint. Edwards then forced Thomas to the ground and held him face down with the force of his body weight.
Around that time, Moore arrived at the courthouse with two other women to bail Thomas out of jail. Edwards and Mizelle had begun to drag Thomas towards the courthouse.
Moore grabbed her smartphone and told the deputies that she was recording the scene. She followed them as they continued to drag her nephew.
This image from a bystander’s cellphone, obtained by Carolina Public Press, captured the violent encounter between Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Edwards and Gary Thomas Jr.
That’s when Edwards struck Moore in the face, knocking her to the ground. He placed her in handcuffs as well.
Edwards then took Thomas and Moore to jail.
Jail staff refused to place Thomas and Moore in a holding cell without the proper paperwork from a judge. Additionally, they wanted a medical clearance for Moore, whose mouth had been bloodied from being hit by Edwards.
Thomas and Moore posted bail, and were treated for their injuries at a hospital the following day.
A video of the incident circulated widely on social media and was the subject of local and national news coverage.
Edwards was fired by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office less than a week later. No criminal charges were filed against him.
The District Attorney’s office dropped all criminal charges against Thomas and Moore “in the interests of justice.”
Washington County agencies liable, lawsuit argues
In September 2023, attorneys from the National Police Accountability Project and a Charlotte law firm filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Thomas and Moore.
The lawsuit brings a deluge of claims against Edwards and Mizelle for excessive force; additional officers on the scene who failed to intervene; and top law enforcement officials in Washington County and the town of Plymouth for their hiring and training practices.
One revelation is that Edwards had been fired by the State Highway Patrol for undisclosed conduct in 2010.
According to publicly-available data, Edwards did not work as a North Carolina law enforcement officer during the decade between his dismissal and his hiring in Washington County.
Plaintiff attorney Keisha James said she believes Washington County’s failure to properly screen Edwards makes the county liable.
“The hiring procedures that they have in place are so deficient,” James said, “that it was almost inevitable that somebody like Edwards would be hired.”
‘Wandering officers’
The phenomenon of law enforcement officers who bounce between agencies after firings or resignations from their previous jobs goes back to at least the 1990s. These officers may work at upwards of 10 agencies over the course of their careers, never staying at one job for too long.
Often, these officers are able to continue working because they are rarely decertified by the state commissions in charge.
According to the N.C. Department of Justice’s revocation and suspension data web page, Edwards was still certified — at least as of Oct. 12, 2022. That’s seven months after he was fired from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
The first systematic investigation of wandering officers was published in the Yale Law Journal in 2020. In that study, Duke Law School professor Ben Grunwald and University of Chicago Law School professor John Rappaport combed through employment data of 98,000 Florida law enforcement officers over a 30-year period.
They identified more than 1,000 — equivalent to 3% of all officers in the state — who worked for Florida agencies after previously being fired.
In North Carolina, the N.C. Department of Justice disclosed the employment history of more than 68,000 officers going back to 1973. That searchable database can be accessed using the National Police Index, a collaborative data project between several organizations.
However, that data does not include the reason for each officer’s separation from their previous departments. Reasons might include resignation, retirement, dismissal or death.
CPP submitted a records request to the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission seeking a report that could shed more light on the details of Edwards’ firing from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. However, the commission did not respond to the request before the posting of this story.
Additionally, Washington County officials did not respond to a request for comment as well.
Was this preventable?
Not much happened with the civil case until December, when Edwards, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and town of Plymouth each filed separate motions for summary judgement, asking presiding Judge James C. Dever III to dismiss the claims against them.
Edwards and Mizelleargued they are entitled to “qualified immunity” — a legal doctrine which protects individual officers from being sued.
Last week, the plaintiffs filed a response to the motions for summary judgement, reiterating their case for each claim.
James emphasized the importance of seeking justice not just from the officers involved, but the agencies that enabled that behavior.
“All of these failures at Washington County created a situation,” she said, “where something like that could happen.”
When will Helene-damaged Broadmoor Golf Course be ready for play? FernLeaf Charter School back in business in previously flooded location? • Asheville Watchdog
The Broadmoor Golf Course near Asheville Regional Airport, owned by the airport and leased to DreamCatcher Hotels, suffered over $10 million in flood damage from Tropical Storm Helene. DreamCatcher is rebuilding the course, clubhouse, and maintenance buildings using insurance and company funds, aiming to reopen in spring 2026. Meanwhile, FernLeaf Community Charter School in Fletcher, flooded by Helene, reopened its elementary Creek Campus after nearly a year with new modular buildings. Despite challenges, including ongoing construction and flooding risks, the school rebuilt on its original site with community support and flood insurance, celebrating resilience and continued education.
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:
Question: The Broadmoor Golf Course near the airport suffered catastrophic damage during the floods of Helene. Only the driving range has been able to operate. But now there is great activity that looks like the course is being rebuilt. I think the property belongs to the airport, and it is contracted out for management. Who is paying for this work, and when might the course be ready again for play?
My answer: I do miss playing this course, mainly because it’s not often I get a chance to hit a wayward shot onto an interstate, in this case I-26. Usually my drives are confined to the woods or a simple two-lane road.
Real answer: In short, a lot is going on at Broadmoor, which is located off Airport Road about a mile from Asheville Regional. The airport does own the property, but it leases the golf course to a company, DreamCatcher Hotels, which operates the golf course and plans to build a hotel on the property.
Zeke Cooper, president and CEO of DreamCatcher, told me his company has a 50-year lease, and it is committed to site improvements.
“As always planned, we are developing a hotel on the property, which we plan to start site work on later this year,” Cooper said via email.
Tropical Storm Helene inundated the Broadmoor Golf Links course, causing over $10 million in damage. // Photo provided by DreamCatcher Hotels
Helene, which struck our area Sept. 27, inundated the golf course and clubhouse. The French Broad River is close by, and the property is, as the name implies, relatively flat.
“The golf course lost over 1,000 trees and had 12-18 inches of silt covering 60-70 percent of the course,” Cooper said. “The first step was to remove all of the tree debris and remove the silt.”
The company finished that in April, and golf course reconstruction started shortly thereafter.
“The clubhouse had two feet of water on the first floor, with the basement completely submerged,” Cooper said. “The maintenance and irrigation buildings were submerged, resulting in total losses of the buildings and all equipment within them. It was a mess!”
Fortunately, they did have flood insurance. Cooper said total damage exceeded $10 million.
“So a lot of the work is being paid for with insurance funds, as well as our own money,” Cooper said. “We do not have an opening date yet, but expect to reopen in spring of 2026.”
For the golfers out there, Cooper gave a detailed breakdown of all the work they’re doing:
On the golf course: Stripping all greens surfaces, adding in new greens mix and reseeding with bent grass. All greens are completed and currently growing in. The 11th green was completely destroyed, as well as some tee boxes. Those have been rebuilt and are growing in.
All of the fairways and tees have been stripped of silt, regraded and tilled. All of these areas are currently growing in with Bermuda grass.
All of the bunkers were stripped, regraded and rebuilt with new drainage and sand. Sod was used around every greens complex and all bunkers, with the work completed about a month ago.
Tropical Storm Helene left behind 12 to 18 inches of silt on the Broadmoor Golf Links course in the Fletcher area. Workers had it removed by April, and the company that operates the course is rebuilding. // Photo provided by DreamCatcher Hotels
The irrigation electrical system was destroyed, and has now been replaced. New irrigation pumps have been operational the last couple of months. Workers also had to clean out and replace drainage systems, along with lots of bank restabilization.
Driving range: “We were able to open the driving range in a temporary capacity while work was being undertaken on the course,” Cooper said. “We closed the range on Aug. 11, in order to fix damage from the flood. It is currently under construction and we hope to reopen it in the next three to four months. No timetable, yet, as it’s weather dependent this late in the season.”
Clubhouse, maintenance buildings: The company gutted, cleaned and rebuilt the clubhouse. “We are close to hopefully reopening the clubhouse and restaurant in the next two months,” Cooper said. “We are working on finalizing some construction items for a full Certificate of Occupancy, as well as waiting on furniture, fixtures and equipment.”
The maintenance and irrigation buildings are completed and in use, Cooper added.
Question: What is going on with the FernLeaf Community Charter School in Fletcher? I’ve seen they’re putting back in mobile classrooms in the area that flooded, and it looks like it’s close to reopening. I thought they moved all the students to their location further south that sits on top of a hill?
My answer: I suspect all of the new mobile classrooms are actually barges. Pretty ingenious, really.
Real answer: Back in April I wrote about FernLleaf, the flooding at its location off Howard Gap Road in Fletcher, and the school’s plans to rebuild. Helene’s floodwaters filled the buildings with up to six feet of water and swept some of them off their foundations, Nicole Rule, communications, marketing and events coordinator for the school, said then.
On Monday she had some happy news about FernLeaf’s “second act.”
FernLeaf Community Charter School, which sustained major damage at its “Creek Campus” elementary school location in Fletcher, has reopened with new modular buildings. // Photo by Nicole Rule of FernLeaf Charter School.
“On Aug. 13, FernLeaf Community Charter School in Fletcher reopened its Creek Campus — 321 days after Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic flooding swept our main buildings off their foundations and left the campus under several feet of water,” Rule said via email. “In that time, over 430 elementary students and their teachers relocated to our Wilderness Campus (previously home to middle and high schoolers), where they continued learning without missing a beat.”
Rule said, “Community partners, including general contractor Beverly Grant and even the Carolina Panthers Charities (with a $20,000 grant), rallied to help us rebuild.
“While one building is still under construction due to this summer’s unrelenting rain, the reopening marks a milestone for our students, families, and the broader Fletcher/Asheville community,” Rule said. That building should be ready by the end of September.
Michael Luplow, FernLeaf’s executive director, said the school’s “journey has been a powerful demonstration of what we can achieve when we come together.”
“We are immensely grateful for the unwavering support of our students, families, staff, and the broader community,” Luplow said in the press release. “The re-opening of the Creek Campus is not just about a new set of buildings; it is a celebration of our collective spirit and our enduring mission to provide an innovative, inspiring education to our students.”
By the way, FernLeaf did rebuild on the same footprint, which is close to Cane Creek. But this is all approved.
“Since Fern Leaf had previously been constructed in a manner that met our current elevation requirements, they are permitted to go back in at the same elevation,” Town of Fletcher Planning Director Eric Rufa told me in April. “I have encouraged them to go higher, but current circumstances with regard to grade and ADA requirements may hinder that.”
The school did have flood insurance.
Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The content presents factual information about local community issues, such as flood damage and rebuilding efforts at a golf course and a charter school, without expressing partisan opinions or advocating for a particular political ideology. The tone is neutral and focused on reporting details relevant to the community, reflecting a balanced and nonpartisan approach.
SUMMARY: Brooke Johnson, 29, became the first woman to skateboard across the U.S., completing a nearly four-month, 3,000-mile journey from Santa Monica, California, to Virginia Beach. Motivated by a promise to her late stepfather, Roger, who suffered a spinal cord injury and encouraged her to skate across the country, Brooke fulfilled her goal while raising over $54,000 for spinal cord research. Despite emotional and physical challenges, she felt Roger’s support throughout. At the finish line, she wore a necklace containing his ashes, symbolizing their shared journey. Brooke plans to rest before deciding her next adventure. Donations continue via “Brooke Does Everything.”
Brooke Johnson traveled by skateboard from California to Virginia Beach over 118 days to raise over $50000 for spinal cord injury …
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-08-18 08:01:00
Hurricane Erin, which rapidly intensified from Category 1 to Category 5 over the weekend with winds near 160 mph, weakened slightly to Category 4 on Monday while remaining offshore. At 8 a.m., it was about 115 miles north-northeast of Grand Turk and 890 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, moving northwest at 13 mph. Dare County declared an emergency, ordering evacuations for Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks, where NC 12 is at risk of flooding and damage. While Erin is expected to miss U.S. landfall, North Carolina’s coast remains within its wind field amid ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene.
(The Center Square) – Erin, once a Category 5 hurricane over the weekend that more than doubled wind speed to nearly 160 mph, on Monday morning remained on a path to miss landfall of the United States though not without forcing evacuations in North Carolina.
At 8 a.m., the Category 4 hurricane was just east of the southeastern Bahamas, the National Weather Center said, about 115 miles north-northeast of the Grand Turk Islands, and about 890 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras. Erin was moving northwest at 13 mph, forecast to be going north by Wednesday morning while parallel to the Florida panhandle.
Erin had 75 mph maximum winds Friday at 11 a.m., a Category 1, and 24 hours later was near 160 mph and Category 5. It has since gone to a Category 3 before gaining more intensity.
On the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, Category 1 is 74-95 mph, Category 2 is 96-110, Category 3 is major and 111-129 mph, Category 4 is 130-156 mph, and Category 5 is greater than 157 mph. While the most-often characterization of Atlantic basin cyclones, the scale is without context on storm surge – a key factor in damage at landfall.
Dare County on Sunday declared an emergency with evacuations ordered for Hatteras Island and the Outer Banks. N.C. 12, the famed 148-mile roadway linking peninsulas and islands of the Outer Banks, is likely to go under water and parts could wash away – as often happens with hurricanes.
NC12 begins at U.S. 70 at the community of Sea Level and runs to a point just north of Corolla and south of the Currituck Banks North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve. Two ferries, Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island and Cedar Island to Ocracoke Island, are part of the route.
Nearly all of North Carolina’s 301-mile coastline is within the outer wind field projection from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center. The greatest speed, however, is 20 mph.
Erin’s rapid intensity is among the greatest on record, and particularly so for prior to Sept. 1. Hurricane force winds (74 mph) extend 60 miles from its center.
By midnight Thursday into Friday, the storm is expected to be past a point parallel to the Virginia-North Carolina border and gaining speed away from the coast.
The storm’s miss of the state is particularly welcome in light of Hurricane Helene. Recovery from that storm is in its 47th week. Helene killed 107 in the state, 236 across seven states in the South, and caused an estimated $60 billion in damage to North Carolina.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The content provided is a straightforward news report on Hurricane Erin, focusing on meteorological facts, evacuation orders, and recent hurricane impacts in North Carolina. It presents detailed information about the storm’s strength, projected path, and historical context without expressing any opinion or advocating for a particular political viewpoint. The language is neutral and factual, offering updates from official sources and avoiding ideological framing. Thus, it reports on the situation without contributing any discernible political bias or ideological stance.
