Columbus County Sheriff-elect Jody Greene should have been sworn in by now. But protests to the State Board of Elections and accusations of racism that led to him being suspended from office have muddied the waters.
Greene, the first Republican ever elected sheriff of Columbus County, won the office four years ago, and a new termstep with 54% of the vote on Nov. 8. The election came a little more than a month after a judge suspended him from office in this rural county in the southeastern corner of North Carolina.
Greene resigned on Oct. 24, just as a hearing was getting underway to remove him from office.
After the election, two Columbus County residents petitioned to have Greene disqualified, despite winning by almost 10% over Democrat Jason Soles. The county Board of Elections rejected those challenges, so the two appealed to the State Board of Elections.
The state board rejected both protests. In a letter, the State Board of Elections said that because Greene was never formally removed from office by a judge, he was qualified to run in the 2020 election.
“A man who should have been permanently removed and disqualified from office was permitted this run again – a man who is known to bear extreme antipathy toward Black residents and has acted upon that antipathy in a multitude of ways,” reads the complaint from Herman Lewis and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
The protest argues that Greene “tried to game the system and avoid the full consequences for his actions by resigning on the day that the removed proceedings would have been carried to completion.” But those protests fell flat, clearing the way for Greene to be sworn in for a second term.
The district attorney for Columbus, Bladen and Brunswick counties, Jon David, said that if Greene won reelection, he would again ask the court to suspend the sheriff and remove him from office.
Greene’s attorney, Michael Mills, has not responded to a request for comment.
Greene faces accusations of racism tied to a phone call recorded in 2019 by Jason Soles, who was then the interim sheriff, according to legal filings. Soles served as interim sheriff while the board of elections investigated different accusations against Greene, this time alleging he didn’t actually live in the county.
Soles released the recording this fall as he was running as a Democrat to challenge Greene in the sheriff’s race.
“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.
“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 issued an apology on Facebook the day he resigned. But he was also defiant about continuing his reelection campaign.
“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,” Greene said in the social media post on Oct. 24.
“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.”
Since the recording came out, the State Bureau of Investigation opened an inquiry. In his court filing to remove Greene as sheriff, David, the district attorney, said it made him unfit for the office.
When the recorded phone call came out, the district attorney said other people in the sheriff’s office and county government came forward with other accusations, including corruption, abuse of power and having a relationship with an employee.
The other allegations say the sheriff had political opponents arrested, court filings say. That included Jason Lee Croom, Soles’s stepfather.
According to the petition, Croom told the then sheriff he “needed to grow up” after a contentious March 2020 county commission meeting.
“Croom was immediately arrested by deputies,” according to court records. “There was considerable delay at the magistrate’s office as deputies searched for a general statute that had been violated.”
Eventually, Croom was charged with disorderly conduct, but a judge threw the charge out 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 charged County Commissioner Giles “Buddy” Byrd with a felony, according to court records. The charge was the same the sheriff threatened to file against a different county commissioner, according to the district attorney.
The court brought in an outside prosecutor, the standard practice when charging someone like a county commissioner with a crime. That prosecutor found there was not enough evidence and dropped the charges.
“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 a court filing.
The twists and turns of the case have riled Columbus County, a rural county with a population of about 50,000. The sheriff should have been sworn in the week after Thanksgiving. Now that the State Board of Elections rejected the protests, the path is clear for Greene to be sworn in. But Greene’s legal troubles will likely begin again.
“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,” the district attorney said in his petition to remove Greene from office. David said he will file a new petition to remove the sheriff when he is sworn into the office again.
“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,” the district attorney wrote.