In a case where decisions have flipflopped through the court system for seven years, the state Supreme Court will hear Maurice Devalle’s lawsuit to be recertified as a law enforcement officer.
In 2019, Devalle was a deputy with the sheriff’s office and a school resource officer at East Columbus High School when the state Sheriff’s Education and Training Standards Commission refused to allow him to be recertified, saying that Devalle lacked “good moral character.”
Devalle was fired from the Highway Patrol in 2017 when supervisors discovered he was at home when he was scheduled to be working in Wayne County. In addition, the commission said, Devalle lived in Wake County, more than 20 miles from the area he was assigned to work. Devalle admitted to investigators that he sometimes went home for lunch and stayed past the allotted time while on duty.
Devalle attempted to be recertified as a law enforcement officer in 2019 after being hired by the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office. The commission refused his recertification “indefinitely”, citing the moral character clause. He appealed in December 2019, and an administrative judge ruled in favor of Devalle in June 2020. The commission refused the recommendation in October.
The commission’s statement said that while Devalle’s character at the time of the appeal was “credible,” the commission did not think he was being truthful in his testimony, and lacked the “good character” to be a law enforcement officer.
Devalle then appealed that decision, which was heard by a Columbus County Superior Court Judge in November 2021. The judge ruled in favor of Devalle after testimony by then-Sheriff Jody Greene and others. The order instructed that Develle’s certification be made retroactive to 2017.
The commission appealed that decision, but in May 2023 the state court of appeals upheld the decision in favor of Devalle. The commission then appealed to the State Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear the case.
“Mr. Devalle maintains the trial court’s order should be affirmed because the Commission failed to present sufficient evidence that his 2016 conduct amounted to ‘a severe case’ of bad moral character warranting indefinite denial, ‘particularly in light of the evidence of rehabilitation, and that his present character is good’,” Appeals Court Judge Hunter Murphy wrote in the latest court filing. “Mr. Devalle maintains the Commission erroneously distorted the administrative law judge’s ‘credibility determinations and [failed] to give deference to her role as the fact-finder and [that] this conduct amounts to arbitrary and capricious decision making on the part of’ the Commission.”
“We agree with the trial court and conclude the Commission did not abide by its own good moral character standard when it denied Mr. Devalle’s justice officer certification indefinitely,” Murphy wrote. “The Commission’s decision was arbitrary and capricious, and its denial was unsupported by substantial evidence.”
The Police Benevolent Association (PBA), an advocacy group for law enforcement officers, filed a friend of the court brief this week supporting Devalle. A date has not been set for the State Supreme Court to hear the case.
This report contains information from The Carolina Journal.
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