Officer: Easley wanted trooper out

Sgt. Charles L. Jones was fired last year after kicking his police dog

RALEIGH -- Gov. Mike Easley's press office pressured the state Highway Patrol to fire, without due process, a canine handler accused of abusing his assigned police dog last year, a senior officer with the law enforcement agency said in a deposition filed Tuesday.

Sgt. Charles L. Jones is suing to get his job back. In the deposition, Lt. Col. C.E. Lockley said that the governor's press office had told the patrol's spokesman, "They want him gone." Because of that, Lockley said he gave no weight to any of Jones' claims at a pre-dismissal hearing.

"Sergeant Jones was treated differently in the disciplinary process than any case I've ever been involved in," Lockley said in the deposition. "Outside interference in this case was the first -- one of the first cases that I can remember where a decision was made -- and it wasn't relayed to me that it should be the outcome, but it was pretty obvious to me that it should be the outcome -- where the governor's press office got involved and made it known what the outcome should be."

Lockley added that no one from the governor's press office specifically called him and told him to fire Jones, "but it was inferred that the result should be the termination of Sergeant Jones."

In a separate affidavit, Bryan Beatty, secretary of the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, said that over the course of the first week of September, three people connected to the governor told him the governor thought Jones should be fired.

The three officials were Reuben Young, Easley's chief legal counsel; Franklin Freeman, Easley's senior assistant for governmental affairs; and Sherri Johnson, Easley's director of communications.

Renee Hoffman, Easley's press secretary, said the governor's press office could not comment because the case remains in litigation. Lt. Everett Clendenin, spokesman for the Highway Patrol, also declined to comment on the pending court matter.

In a motion filed Friday in response to Jones' request for summary judgment, the state Attorney General's Office noted that Lockley may have claimed that he felt unlawful political interference before firing Jones on Sept. 9. But Jones also appealed his firing through the department's internal grievance process, and Beatty upheld Jones' termination Nov. 14 after reviewing the case.

Jones' lawsuit is scheduled to begin April 28.

Jones was fired after kicking his police dog, Ricoh, four times while the animal was nearly suspended off the ground. The kicks caused the dog to swing in the air for about a second each time, according to patrol documents.

Another trooper recorded video of the incident on his cell phone. The video has not been released, but Jones' attorney, Jack O'Hale of Smithfield, has said the fear of that video's being made public spurred patrol officials to fire Jones.

In his defense, Jones has cited internal patrol communications suggesting other police dog control tactics are just as rough and are standard practice.

The state Attorney General's Office filed a motion to quash a subpoena directing Easley to appear and testify. The motion filed by Assistant Attorney General Ashby Ray says the governor "cannot be called into court to testify in every personnel matter about which he as some knowledge or has expressed an opinion."