Trooper's 82 cases to be tossed

Defendants get a pass after bias accusations

RALEIGH -- Eighty-two people will have charges against them dismissed after prosecutors refused to proceed with cases involving a state trooper who worked the graveyard shift on Raleigh's southern edge and who is accused of targeting young, female drivers.

Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby said Monday that Trooper Scott Harrison is no longer a credible witness after two judges rebuked him in recent months. "I believed that we could not successfully prosecute the cases and could not rely on this testimony," Willoughby said.

The bulk of Harrison's pending cases, 136 charges including 28 driving-while- impaired cases, were dismissed Monday. Most defendants arrested by Harrison were charged with several violations. Willoughby said more than 100 other charges ranging from speeding to having an open container to driving without insurance will be dismissed as they come before the courts in the next few months.

Harrison, 31, remains on administrative duty while the Highway Patrol investigates the claims of bias and an accusation that Harrison roughed up a man while processing him on an impaired-driving arrest at the Wake County jail.

"We support their decision and think it was the right thing to do." said Everett Clendenin, a state Highway Patrol spokesman.

In a statement issued by his lawyers, Harrison disagreed with the district attorney's decision and asked the public to examine his cases.

"I urge the public to go through each case, look at the validity of the arrests and the alcohol content levels and let the people of North Carolina decide for themselves," Harrison said. "I do not believe the evidence supports a finding of any unlawful pattern of arrests made during my 11 years in law enforcement."

Tiffany Walker, 24, was alone when Harrison pulled her over on Glenwood Avenue in May 2006 and charged her with DWI and speeding. Walker, who is now attending law school in Kentucky, knew nothing of the dismissals until a reporter called Monday evening. Her case is scheduled to go to court Aug. 31.

"I definitely felt targeted when I was pulled over," Walker said. "I won't forget being pulled over by this guy."

Walker said Harrison refused to show her what her initial breath test recorded and also wouldn't allow her to retrieve her shoes after she was placed in the patrol car. Walker said her blood alcohol level was .08 when she was booked downtown. North Carolina drivers are considered impaired at .08.

"He just had a snide something to him," Walker said. "He made me walk around with no shoes."

Willoughby said the only other times he could recall similar mass dismissals were when a trooper died or moved away and could not testify. In many of Harrison's DWI cases, the trooper was both the charging officer and the Intoxilyzer operator.

"He would have been the sole witness if any defendant had chosen to plead not guilty," said Matt Godwin, a Wake County assistant district attorney.

Harrison was often the only trooper patrolling Wake County during his 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift. He concentrated most of his efforts on a quarter- to half-mile stretch of Trailwood Drive near Raleigh's southern city limits and N.C. State University's campus, a lawyer told a judge at a hearing this month.

He pulled many women

At that hearing, a woman testified that Harrison talked about her dating life after pulling her over. A court clerk also testified that in 2006, 49 percent of the 106 people Harrison arrested for DWI were women, even though the percentage of women in statewide drunken driving arrests is much lower.

In a strongly worded order dismissing the DWI charge against Christina Pasive, Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens called Harrison's behavior "unacceptable."

"The court does not find the testimony of Scott Harrison credible or worthy of belief," Stephens wrote.

Months earlier a judge had accused Harrison of lying to her, which resulted in his being ordered to do 75 hours of community service and to undergo a mental health evaluation and treatment.

Harrison's credibility was also hurt by testimony earlier this month from Trooper Cedric Herring.

Herring testified before Stephens that Harrison had threatened to harm two lawyers representing some of the women he had charged with impaired driving. Harrison was upset that the lawyers had complained to reporters about his alleged practice of targeting women for traffic stops, according to Herring's testimony.

"Such conduct of threatening to harm lawyers is not in keeping with the excellent reputation and the high standards of the North Carolina Highway Patrol," Stephens wrote.

(Staff writer Mandy Locke and news researcher Lamara Williams-Hackett contributed to this report.)