NC court clears former deputy of assault in Native American burial-site fight
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge acquitted former Onslow deputy of assault, threats and false-report charges.
- State halted Bridge View construction; archaeologists recovered artifacts and burial sites.
- Lawmakers debated permit changes; state agencies coordinate protection before lift.
A former Onslow County Sheriff’s Office deputy was cleared in November of charges that he assaulted two women last year at a Native American archaeological site on the North Carolina coast.
Others involved in the confrontation had their charges dismissed.
Carteret County District Court Judge Paul Delamar found James De La O Jr. not guilty on Nov. 19 of communicating threats, assaulting a woman, and falsifying a police report, court records show. Another assault charge involving an alleged 17-year-old female victim was dismissed.
De La O lives in the Bridge View neighborhood in Cedar Point, North Carolina, where thousands of Native American artifacts and 11 burial sites dating to 1000 B.C. were found in 2024 while the 21-acre development was under construction.
The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources called the site, on Bogue Sound and officially claimed by the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina, “one of the most significant archaeological sites identified in North Carolina since the 1990s.”
The N.C. Department of Coastal Management stopped construction at Bridge View after the discovery, while state lawmakers took up a bill that would let developers disturb archaeological sites. The bill passed the N.C. House, but stalled after the Senate removed a controversial section.
The Coastal Area Management Act permit that allows construction at Bridge View remains on hold, according to Josh Kastrinsky, deputy communications director with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.
NCDEQ is “coordinating closely with the [state] Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to ensure proper protections will be in place for archaeological resources and burial sites before the hold is lifted,” Kastrinsky said.
The Office of State Archaeology has recovered over 100 lithic (stone) and ceramic artifacts so far and is continuing to study the site, a spokesperson with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources said in an email.
Few state protections for native finds
De La O was charged after a fight broke out between Bridge View residents and a group of Native Americans who traveled to the site for a religious ceremony on June 23, 2024.
The group held a prayer vigil at nearby Croatan National Park to honor their history and ancestors before driving to Bridge View, according to Crystal Cavalier-Keck, a member of the Occoneechee Band of the Saponi Nation and co-founder of the nonprofit Native American environmental group 7 Directions of Service.
The Tuscarora were once a powerful tribe living in eastern North Carolina alongside the Occaneechi Saponi and Algonquin people, according to NC Indigenous Media News. But after years of violence leading to the Tuscarora War, many remaining members of the Tuscarora Nation fled north to join the Iroquois Confederacy in New York.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 protects Native American graves found on federal and tribal land and requires the government to work with native communities to handle human remains and cultural items that are found.
But the law does not apply to graves found on private property, or to tribes that lack federal recognition. Only the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is federally recognized in North Carolina. The Tuscarora are not state or federally recognized.
North Carolina law also gives a landowner control of artifacts found on private property, but it requires a permit for excavating artifacts. Graves can only be disturbed under the supervision of an archaeological team.
A landowner has to agree before tribal members can visit a private site, Kastrinsky said. Access under the federal Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 only applies to federal land.
Religious pilgrimage leads to fight
The Native American group found the gate at Bridge View open when they stopped on June 23 to place a traditional offering of tobacco leaves there, Cavalier-Keck told The News & Observer. A sign at the gate advertised an open house, so the group drove to the burial site at the back of the property, she said.
After saying a prayer and singing traditional songs meant to call their ancestors and send them home, the group got in their vehicles to leave, Cavalier-Keck said. That’s when De La O and other residents confronted members of the group about trespassing, she and others have said.
The confrontation was caught on video and showed De La O arguing with multiple people before throwing a woman in a ribbon skirt, later identified as Jane Jacobs, to the ground. The video also shows him wrestling with someone who came to her aid.
Hillsborough resident Brandi Locklear-Alvarez, another member of the Native American group, told deputies that a gun was pointed at her. She later took out charges against Bridge View resident Trenton Broadwell.
Deputies also charged Jacobs, a member of the Tuscarora Nation, after De La O said he was stabbed in the arm. The charge was later dropped, and De La O was charged with filing a false police report, because the information he provided to deputies was “misleading” and incomplete, according to a WITN media report.
Cavalier-Keck said Wednesday that Jacobs’ metal feather earrings cut De La O’s arm during the struggle.
De La O’s attorney William Kennedy III and District Attorney Matthew Wareham, who represents Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties, did not return calls and emails seeking additional information about the incident.
Amber Lueken Barwick, a resource prosecutor with the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, was brought in this year to review the case involving Jacobs. In an email Wednesday, she said the judge did not find enough evidence to prove De La O’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. She declined further comment.
The assault by pointing a gun charge against Broadwell and trespassing charges against two Native American men, Bobby Lowery and Joey Jacobs, were also dismissed in November, court records show.
