WHITEVILLE, N.C. — Just as the state prepared to call its first witness in a hearing to remove Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene from office, the sheriff resigned. That was Oct. 24. Twenty days earlier, a judge suspended Greene after a recording came out of the sheriff making racist comments about his own deputies in 2019.
The same day he resigned, Greene, a Republican, said he would continue campaigning to be elected for a second term. The man who made that recording, Jason Soles, is the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 8 election.
Columbus County is a rural area in southeast North Carolina with a population of about 50,000. In 2020, more than 63% of the county’s voters cast ballots for Donald Trump.
If Greene wins another term as sheriff, District Attorney Jon David said he would go back to court to remove him again.
“These allegations speak through time and are disqualifying to anyone seeking to hold the high office of sheriff,” David said in a statement.
The day he resigned, Greene issued an apology but was also defiant with his plans to run for a second terms.
“This has been a humbling experience. I am sincerely sorry for the disrespectful and insensitive words that have offended my friends, colleagues, and fellow citizens. I ask for forgiveness,” Green said in a Facebook post the day he resigned.
“The allegations in the State's Petition and Amended Petition are not true. They were politically motivated,” he said. “Weaponizing the courts to attack, smear, or ruin those whom we disagree with politically is wrong. Political disagreements should be settled by the voters.”
But court filings from the district attorney and allegations from the State Bureau of Investigation tell a different story. In the complaints David filed with the court to remove the sheriff from office, the district attorney argued the racist and profane language in the call made Greene unfit for office.
“I’m sick of it. I’m sick of these Black bastards. I’m gonna clean house and be done with it,” Greene said in the recording from early 2019.
“Tomorrow’s gonna be a new F***ing day. I’m still the mother f***ing sheriff, and I will go up and fire every goddamn (inaudible). F*** them Black bastards,” he said in the recording, much of which is transcribed and included in the court files. “They think I’m scared? Time to clean them out. There’s a snitch in there somewhere.”
Greene did not respond to requests for comment through his lawyer. Wilmington attorney Michael Mills, who represented Greene in the removal proceedings, declined to comment on the record.
In the recorded phone call, Greene was talking to Soles, who was then the interim sheriff, and his chief deputy. Green was suspended at the time, shortly after he was first elected, as the State Board of Elections investigated a claim that the sheriff did not actually live in the county.
In the 2018 sheriff’s race, Greene won the election with just 37 votes over the Democratic incumbent Sheriff Lewis Hatcher. The State Board of Elections dismissed a complaint against Greene, finding that a recreational vehicle parked on his farm was his legal residence, according to the Associated Press.
After the recording came out, the district attorney said other members of the sheriff’s office and in county government came forward with accusations of corruption, abuse of power, intimidation and having an improper relationship with an employee.
The SBI began investigating Greene on Sept. 27. That investigation continues, a spokeswoman for the agency said.
The other allegations accuse the sheriff of having his political opponents arrested, according to court records. That includes Jason Lee Croom, stepfather of Soles who is the Democratic candidate for sheriff this year.
According to the petition filed by the district attorney, Croom told the then-sheriff he “needed to grow up” after a heated county commission meeting in March 2020.
“Croom was immediately arrested by deputies,” the court filing states. “There was considerable delay at the magistrate’s office as deputies searched for a general statute that had been violated.”
He was eventually charged with disorderly conduct in a public building, but those charges were quashed by a judge three months later, according to the petition.
“I believe that Greene targeted me because he didn’t like for people to stand up to him, and that I am Jason Soles’ stepfather,” Croom said in an affidavit filed in the court case to remove Greene.
In another case, the sheriff’s department filed felony charges against County Commissioner Giles “Buddy” Byrd, according to court records. The sheriff had originally threatened to file similar charges against a different county commissioner, according to the district attorney.
A prosecutor brought in from the Conference of District Attorneys found there was not enough evidence to pursue the charges. It is standard practice to bring in an outside prosecutor when someone like a county commissioner is accused of a crime.
“Defendant’s true motivation in bringing criminal charges was to gain unfair leverage against all county commissioners, rather than solve a crime,” the district attorney said in the court filing.
The petition also accuses Greene of “willful misconduct” in a case where an inmate at the county jail was assaulted by four other inmates and ended up with severe brain injuries.
A SBI investigation found guards at the Columbus County detention center did not see the assault and did not respond to what happened for about 20 minutes. The inmate had asked to be moved to a different part of the jail shortly before the assault, according to court filings.
The petition also accuses Greene of having a sexual relationship with an employee, including “engaging in sex acts” while on duty.
The Columbus County NAACP, along with the North Carolina NAACP, recently sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking for an investigation into the sheriff’s office. The NAACP also asked DOJ to send poll monitors to the county for the midterm elections.
“We want to make sure people’s votes are protected and (voters) are not intimidated,” Columbus County NAACP President Curtis Hill said. ”We want to make sure that we have everybody we can have to observe what’s going on in this county to make sure the vote happens with no problems.”
Despite the leaked recording of racist comments, accusations of false arrest and trying to intimidate county commissioners, Greene is continuing his campaign for a second term as Columbus County Sheriff.
Greene called the accusations against him “only smears and rumors” Friday in a post on his campaign Facebook page.
“The opponent and his campaign went around recording and spreading false information not only against me, but against business owners, CCSO employees, their families, and my supporters,” he said.
But the district attorney disagrees.
“Defendant has engaged in long term and widespread conduct that evinces a pattern of racial discrimination, vindictiveness towards perceived political opponents, and maladministration in office,” David said in the petition to remove the sheriff.
“Our constitution establishes a government of checks and balances. It is incumbent upon the judiciary to permanently remove Defendant as he is wholly unfit to hold the high office of sheriff,” David wrote.
