Ex-NC deputy says he was following orders. Wake jury says he’s guilty of 12 felonies.
A Wake County jury found a former Granville County deputy guilty Thursday of 12 felony charges of obstructing justice, while acquitting him on 12 charges of obtaining property by false pretenses.
Chad Coffey was facing a total of 24 felony charges after falsifying training and qualification requirements for former Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins and his former chief deputy from 2013 to 2018.
Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour sentenced Coffey to serve five to 15 months in prison. Coffey will serve at most six months of that active sentence due to a general requirement of post-release supervision for the last nine months for such sentences.
Coffey then faces 24 months of supervised probation.
“Mr. Coffey I do not think you’re a bad person, and I believe you have done a lot of good in your professional life and I am sure you have at home as well,” Baddour said before the sentencing. “I think the thing that troubles the court the most about the evidence in the case was the pervasive belief that the rules just did not apply.”
Baddour said he struggled with the idea that Coffey, who was head of the Granville’s sheriff’s office training program, valued training and thought it was important part of his career, yet he and the sheriff decided that state training requirements didn’t apply to certain people because they had the skills and experience.
“That just can’t be the way the system works,” Baddour said.
Coffey’s attorneys said they plan to appeal.
‘I was in a bad position’
The case is tied to a years-long investigation into the Granville County Sheriff’s Office, which has resulted in charges for the sheriff and three other deputies in Wake and Granville.
Coffey said before his sentencing that it was never his intention to make a mockery of the state’s training program or put unsafe officers on the street.
“I was in a bad position. It is a true story, if I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t have a job. I wouldn’t have a career,” said Coffey, 47, who is married and has two children in college.
Baddour took issue with that statement, saying Coffey might have lost his job as a deputy in Granville, but there were surrounding counties he could have gone to.
“It can’t be that the solution when you are asked to lie is I am going to do it to save my job,” Baddour said. “Almost everyone faces a time when a boss says, ‘Hey just do it,’ and they have to make a choice.”
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, who helped prosecute the case, asked the judge to sentence Coffey to prison time after he flouted the state’s training requirements.
“What we have witnessed unfold here over the last few days will create further erosion of public trust in our criminal justice system,” Freeman said. “I believe what we have seen is that a culture developed of people believing that they were above the law, and I would say to the court that it is an incredibly dangerous place for any of us, but especially people who possess the power of arrest.”
Closing arguments
In closing arguments, Coffey’s attorney argued the state was overreaching, as prosecutors emphasized accountability.
Coffey was following Wilkins’ orders, said Hart Miles, Coffey’s attorney.
Coffey didn’t know he was breaking the law, and any punishment should be administrative, such as losing his teaching or other certification, not criminal, Miles said.
“What’s really going on here?” Miles asked. “Are these big city ... prosecutors playing gotcha with a small town sheriff’s office?”
Coffey, a deputy for more than 20 years, loved his job in law enforcement and took pride in training deputies, Miles said. Coffey signed off on the documents at the sheriff’s order, but he knew both men had years of experience, were strong shooters and weren’t out on the streets making arrests, Miles said.
Wilkins, who has broad powers as an elected sheriff, and his chief deputy were too busy trying to keep Granville County safe to take the classes, and Wilkins testified he ordered Coffey to sign the documents, Miles said.
“That was the way it was done in Granville County, and I expect in other counties,” Miles said.
Miles also argued that under state law, the sheriff and the chief deputy, who didn’t go out on calls, didn’t have to complete in-service training. Coffey’s attorney said he worked with the sheriff to create an in-house training program, and the two men completed open-book tests. The defense conceded that the men didn’t complete their firearms qualifications.
Deputies are required to complete annual firearm testing in order to continue carrying their weapon.
Wake County Assistant District Attorney Katy Pomeroy argued that the jury should find Coffey guilty, saying nobody is above the law.
Coffey knowingly signed false documents hundreds of times, deceiving the N.C. Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission, she said.
Wilkins and his chief deputy are eligible for an additional pension if they retire with their law enforcement certification, she said. Coffey benefited from the deception, Pomeroy said, because he was paid by the local community college only if he had a certain number officers in his class.
While the defense argued the chief deputy didn’t need to be certified, Coffey still went through the process to make it appear he was, Pomeroy said.
“He knew where those documents were going. Why else fill them out?” Pomeroy said.
“The whole point of these documents is to prove to training and standards that you have done this,” she said. “He knew exactly where they were going. He knew exactly why he was doing it and what the effect of sending them would be.”
More charges
In Granville County, Coffey faces another 11 felonies charging him with obstruction of justice, conspiring to deliver cocaine, embezzlement by a public officer and other offenses.
Freeman said she plans to move forward next with trying Wilkins on the 14 Wake felony charges accusing him of falsifying records.
“I think today’s convictions will probably send a message and probably change the landscape of how the rest of this matter will move forward,” Freeman said.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Ex-NC deputy says he was following orders. Wake jury says he’s guilty of 12 felonies.."
