Lincoln County's second-highest ranking law officer was indicted Monday and charged with helping an acquaintance get out of a drunken driving arrest in 2007.
Sheriff's Chief Deputy Barry Eugene Taylor, 38, is charged with felony obstruction of justice. The alleged incident was investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation, said Gwynn Radeker, senior assistant district attorney for Lincoln and Cleveland counties.
“Regardless of what you do or who you are, we cannot operate under the good ol' boy framework like we did 50 years ago,” Radeker told The Observer on Monday.
District Attorney Rick Shaffer scheduled a news conference for 8 a.m. today at the Lincoln County commissioners' chamber in Lincolnton, Radeker said.
Taylor is accused of intervening on Feb 25, 2007, when Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Dombrowski arrested a man on suspicion of drunken driving and brought him to the detention center for sobriety tests and booking, Radeker said. The driver's name has not been released by investigators.
If convicted, Taylor could be sentenced to probation or up to 10 months in jail, Radeker said.
Taylor couldn't be reached Monday. Sheriff Tim Daugherty didn't have a comment for The Observer on Monday, said spokesman Jon Mayhew. As of Monday evening, Taylor was not suspended and was scheduled for regular duty, Mayhew said.
Daugherty is a first-term sheriff who won election by a slim margin as a Democrat in the heavily Republican county.
The months-old SBI investigation has become well-known in the community with details covered by newspapers and a controversial blog, called the Lake Norman Bath. The blog has pilloried the sheriff and his office with accusations of impropriety.
The blog has posted comments from the sheriff responding to allegations not related to the Taylor case.
Radeker said information from the blog served as tips and was instrumental in the state's investigation and the grand jury indictment.
The news@norman, a weekly newspaper with an online edition, said the SBI investigation involved off-site interviews with deputies who feared for their jobs.
According to Observer interviews and the news@norman, the unidentified driver is a Lincolnton doctor who was arrested in Denver, N.C., by Dombrowski. On his way to jail, he allegedly called his wife who then contacted a third party who knew Taylor.
According to the news@norman, Taylor then met Dombrowski and the doctor at the jail and released the doctor. Taylor later said the doctor wasn't impaired.
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