Ex-North Carolina sheriff’s convictions over falsifying training records overturned

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court on Tuesday overturned a former county sheriff’s fraud and obstruction convictions, declaring allegations related to falsifying his firearms training requirements didn’t meet the necessary elements for those crimes.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals vacated the convictions against Brindell Wilkins on six counts of obstruction of justice and also reversed a trial judge’s decision refusing to dismiss six counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, for which a jury also found him guilty in December 2022. The ruling comes seven months after a subordinate to Wilkins had his obstruction convictions related to the training overturned.

Wilkins, the Granville County sheriff for 10 years until 2019, was sentenced from six to 17 months behind bars. Last year, Wilkins pleaded guilty to other charges unrelated to the allegations and received another prison sentence. State correction records show Wilkins was projected to be released from a state prison on Dec. 23.

The 2022 convictions stemmed from accusations that Wilkins falsified records to make it appear he completed the annual in-service firearm training required of most certified law enforcement officers and met qualifications to carry a firearm. A sheriff isn’t required to maintain certification or complete the training requirements, Tuesday’s opinion said.

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Still, over several years in the 2010s, Wilkins reported to the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Division that he had completed the training and classes when he hadn’t done so. A 2019 investigation of the Granville sheriff department found that Wilkins’ signatures on class rosters had been falsified.

Chad Coffey, a former Granville deputy on trial on similar obstruction counts, was the course instructor. Coffey doctored records and fabricated firearms scores for Wilkins and the sheriff’s chief deputy at their urging, according to evidence at his early 2022 trial.

At his own trial, Wilkins acknowledged he had not completed the training or requalification since becoming sheriff, and testified he submitted the false records for “a personal reason” and that he “wanted to get credit for it,” Tuesday’s opinion said.

Court of Appeals Judge Toby Hampson, writing the unanimous opinion, agreed with Wilkins that prosecutors had failed to prove that fraud was committed.

The count of obtaining property by false pretenses requires a false representation occurred that deceives so that “one person obtains or attempts to obtain value from another.” But Hampson wrote nothing was obtained because the sheriff already had received certification to become a law enforcement officer when he was previously a sheriff’s deputy.

“We conclude that renewing a previously acquired law enforcement certification does not constitute obtaining property,” Hampson said.

As for the felony obstruction of justice charges, Hampson relied heavily on the February opinion he also wrote that overturned Coffey’s convictions.

At that time, Hampson wrote obstruction of justice requires intent for “the purpose of hindering or impeding a judicial or official proceeding or investigation or potential investigation, which might lead to a judicial or official proceeding.”

He said there were no facts asserted in Coffey’s indictment to support the charge that his actions were designed to subvert a future investigation or proceeding. The same held true with Wilkins’ “nearly identical indictment,” Hampson wrote on Tuesday.

Court of Appeals Judges Hunter Murphy and April Wood joined in Hampson’s opinion. The state Supreme Court could agreed to hear Tuesday’s decision on appeal. But the justices earlier this year already declined to take on Coffey’s case, even though both attorneys for the state and Coffey asked them to do so.

In October 2023, Wilkins pleaded guilty to several other counts related in part to allegations of improper evidence practices and that he urged someone to kill another former deputy.