Chadbourn case dismissed when drugs not sent to state, DA says
District Attorney Jon David recommended suspending Chadbourn Police Chief Anthony Spivey March 4 due to problems with criminal evidence that led to the dismissal of at least one case.
Spivey was placed on administrative leave March 5, days after Assistant Town Manager Jerome Chestnutt was named interim manager.
In a letter to the town dated March 4 and hand-delivered, David detailed problems obtaining evidence, including “drugs, money and guns” that had been seized in Chadbourn Police cases. The letter said that David advised the CPD set up an account with the state crime lab in May 2019 to assist in processing drugs and other evidence.
“During the course of our internal review regarding this case and other pending drug cases from your police department,” the letter read, “We have unearthed the fact that that your police department has neglected to send any narcotics for chemical analysis to the State Crime Lab for a substantial period of time.”
The letter has a name redacted in several places, with the exception of the letters “C” and “y.”
“I have come to learn that C (blank) inability to follow through with the request to submit narcotics for testing has resulted in the dismissal of a number of felony drug cases.”
On Feb. 26, David wrote, two assistant district attorneys went to the CPD to discuss a pending homicide investigation and review several drug cases, David wrote.
“During this meeting (blank) indicated that he did not have the keys to the evidence locker and asked my prosecutors to return on Monday, March 1.”
David wrote that (blank) “y” was the only one with access to the evidence room, but after three hours of searching, could not produce drugs, cash and firearms requested by the DA.
David the subpoenaed “y” to produce the evidence in court March 4. “Y” – presumed to be Spivey – was an hour late for court and “Was missing a substantial amount of requested evidence to include a firearm.” David also said in the letter prosecutors were concerned the evidence had been “tampered” (sic).
“Given the facts as stated above I have some serious concerns about the integrity of the evidence storage at the Chadbourn Police Department and the breakdown in having drugs tested at the State Crime Lab,” the letter said. “I recommend that you immediately suspend (blank) pending the results of an outside independent review by the State Bureau of Investigation.”
ADA Jacob Ward referred questions to the Town of Chadbourn.
