Here's why a small-town sheriff in North Carolina was forced to resign
The elected sheriff of Cherokee County is resigning, days after the district attorney formally asked him to step aside, citing what she described as years of negligence, misconduct complaints, and lost public trust. District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch sent a letter to Sheriff Dustin Smith on January 28th calling for him to resign. In the letter, Welch said citizens had raised repeated concerns over what she called 'willful or habitual negligence, refusals to perform duties of the office, and maladministration.' Welch wrote that after reviewing discovery related to the 2022 shooting of an unarmed man in Murphy, including an SBI criminal investigation and civil discovery, she became 'gravely concerned' about Smith’s actions and statements surrounding that case. She also cited what she called 'an evidence room catastrophe,' inactions involving Sport Teasdale, and the murder of Detention Officer Francisco Flattes by an inmate who had escaped from the Cherokee Co...
