By Carli Brosseau and Sarah Nagem

By the time Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene resigned in January 2023, it was clear that state investigators were chasing leads far beyond a recorded phone call in which he called his deputies “snakes” and “Black bastards.”

District Attorney Jon David was prepared to argue in court that Greene should be stripped of his position due to “repeated acts of willful misconduct or maladministration while in office,” including intimidation, false arrests, and negligent supervision of the county jail. Greene had already resigned once, facing the same array of allegations documented in a 900-page State Bureau of Investigation report, but he had been reelected nonetheless.

Greene’s critics, particularly in the Black community, pinned their hopes for accountability on federal prosecutors who subpoenaed dozens of people to testify before a grand jury as part of their own probe into Greene’s tenure as sheriff. Perhaps they would have tools strong enough to root out the corruption and racial discrimination that have haunted this rural southeastern county for decades.

Documents recently obtained by The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent shed light on the shape of that investigation. The FBI and IRS have pursued multiple leads, including suspicions of embezzlement involving some of the area’s most prominent business owners. The news outlets filed suit in September seeking additional records related to various misconduct allegations that county officials have delayed or refused to release.

In December 2023, the newly obtained documents show, FBI Special Agent April Floyd emailed a subpoena to Columbus County’s chief deputy, Jerome McMillian, demanding information for all bank accounts held by the sheriff’s office. Investigators included a list of 51 businesses and individuals whose financial dealings with the sheriff’s office they wanted to scrutinize further. 

Several of the so-called relevant parties have been especially vocal Greene supporters, including Ricky Bullard, a butcher from Greene’s hometown of Cerro Gordo who chaired the county commission for four years until last week; Kevin Harrelson, the conspicuously wealthy owner of a tow company and auto body shop; and Brandon Patrick, owner of a power-washing company in Whiteville, the county seat. 

Also named were at least 18 current or former employees of the sheriff’s office, some of whom held high-ranking positions under Greene while owning local businesses that received government contracts. 

The subpoena directed the sheriff’s office to turn over its records, including procurement manuals, to an IRS special agent. The listed demands, along with the involvement of the federal tax agency, suggest that investigators had evidence that someone was not paying their taxes, experts say, and are looking for more information about suspicious transactions they noticed in bank records.

“More than likely, there is unreported income,” said Robert Nordlander, a former IRS special agent who now runs a forensic accounting and tax consulting firm in the Triad. 

A common scenario Nordlander observed over his 20-year IRS career is that a government official with control over the procurement process would steer contracts to a friend. Then the friend would send some or all of the money back to the official as a kickback. 

“With this grand jury investigation, there had to be some type of basis where the U.S. government believes that it’s circular, with someone getting a kickback at the end of the day,” he said. “That’s why IRS is involved.” 

Kristine Artello, an associate professor of criminal justice at Fisher College in Boston who has written extensively about public corruption investigations, came to the same conclusion: “They’re trying to follow the money.” 

While federal investigators have been on the case since at least December 2022, there has so far been no announcement of indictments. Typically, Artello said, prosecutors are reluctant to indict before they feel like they have the whole picture, and this subpoena makes clear that investigators see this case as having several parts. 

They also demanded documents related to changes to the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office email system, asset forfeiture, military surplus equipment, cash payments, and any contributions or donations to the office dating back to January 2015. 

And they ordered the sheriff’s office to turn over a slew of records related to deputies’ use of force, including policy manuals, deputies’ reports, internal affairs investigations, and other documents related to allegations of use of excessive force or discrimination. 

“This case,” Artello said, “it looks like a real octopus.” 

Draining the swamp

Donald Trump’s win in the presidential election has prompted a new question to swirl around Columbus County: Is the federal investigation effectively dead? 

The past and future president has expressed disdain for corruption probes. He moved quickly to announce that he would replace the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, who has a reputation for aggressively prosecuting corruption, and has publicly sympathized with indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams: “I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ.” 

Greene’s supporters in Columbus County have echoed some of Trump’s language, calling the investigations into the sheriff’s office—where Greene was the first Republican sheriff in living memory—a politically driven “witch hunt.”

North Carolina’s Eastern District has also been notable for its pursuit of corruption cases. Under Mike Easley Jr., the U.S. attorney currently in charge, its prosecutors secured more public corruption convictions than almost any other district in the country, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which compiles federal court data. 

It would not be surprising if Trump’s new attorney general asked Easley to resign once he takes office in January. Easley is an appointee of President Joe Biden, and new presidential administrations often seek to replace U.S. attorneys appointed by their predecessors. In March 2017, Trump’s first Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked appointees of President Barack Obama to resign. Four years later, Biden’s top prosecutor asked Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys to step down. 

Easley being forced out wouldn’t necessarily spell doom for the Columbus County investigation, former U.S. attorneys say. 

“Traditionally, investigations are run by civil servants in the U.S. attorney’s offices who are protected from the political whims that may blow at any given time,” said Thomas Walker, whom Obama appointed to lead the state’s Eastern District from 2011 to 2016. 

Ripley Rand, an Obama appointee who served as the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, agreed, saying he was confident decisions made in the Eastern District office “will be made on the merits and not on politics.” 

The prosecutor leading the Columbus case, Dennis Duffy, is a veteran of major corruption probes. He handled the prosecution of Meg Scott Phipps, the state agriculture commissioner who pleaded guilty to extortion and bribery charges in 2004, among several other high-profile cases.

“With this grand jury investigation, there had to be some type of basis where the U.S. government believes that it’s circular, with someone getting a kickback at the end of the day.”

Robert Nordlander, former IRS special agent

It’s common for complex corruption probes to take years, experts say, so the lack of indictments isn’t necessarily a sign that the investigation is languishing or that it’s been abandoned. 

The sheer number of people under scrutiny, either directly or tangentially, plus the retirement this summer of the veteran IRS investigator involved in the case, has probably extended the timeline, Artello said. 

An IRS spokesperson said in late November that the agency did not have a special agent assigned to the case; she did not say why. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI declined to comment. 

Since the case began, prosecuting local officials for corruption has gotten more difficult. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the main federal statute used in local corruption cases outlawed “bribes” promised or given before an official act, but not “gratuities” paid afterward. 

Tangled web

Aaron Herring, who oversaw procurement and budgeting as Greene’s chief deputy, is one of the “relevant parties” named in the federal subpoena. Several other businesses on the list tie back to him, one way or another. 

Take, for example, Show Ridez Automotive Care. Herring told The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent last year that he was the owner of that business, but that the company was distinct from a similarly named business, called just Show Ridez, that received county money. Social media posts appear to contradict him. 

Records that The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent obtained from the county this year show that the sheriff’s office paid Show Ridez at least $18,000 since 2018 for window tinting, detailing, and various upgrade installations while Herring was chief deputy. (This figure could be an undercount; a state audit listed more than $9,000 in fiscal year 2021 alone.) 

The payments began that December, while the question of who was the rightful sheriff of Columbus County remained unresolved. That year’s election was close, with fewer than 40 votes separating Greene and incumbent Sheriff Lewis Hatcher, and the race had been embroiled in controversy. A get-out-the-vote contractor Greene had hired was under investigation for illegal ballot harvesting, and Greene faced additional questions about whether he met residency requirements to take office. Though the election would not be officially certified until six months later, Greene was sworn in on December 3 and shortly afterward named Herring chief deputy. 

The first Show Ridez bill was dated three days after Greene took the oath, county records show. It was for tinting to Herring’s vehicle. The second bill, dated the following day, was for tinting to Greene’s. 

At least six other businesses within a half hour’s drive of Whiteville, the county seat, provide automotive window tinting. The news outlets compared costs for tinting the windows of an F-150, one of the vehicles specified in the records. Show Ridez charged $298.90 on September 21, 2021, the documents say. Every business surveyed charged less—between $200 and $280 for top-of-the-line service. 

Another business on the subpoena list, H & P Investments, is a limited liability company Herring formed in 2019. The principal address he provided to the Secretary of State’s Office was 510 S. Madison Street in Whiteville—the same address as Show Ridez. 

In 2019, H & P Investments acquired an auto garage at 333 S. Vinson Boulevard in Whiteville, county records show. H & P later transferred the property to another limited liability company Herring formed, AW Herring Enterprises, which is also on the subpoena list. 

A third “relevant party” is associated with the Vinson Boulevard address, as well. Automotive Truck and Customizing lists the building as its principal address on its 2021 incorporation records. That company is registered to a former sheriff’s deputy, Jeffrey Parker Bell. His name appears in the subpoena, as does his wife’s. 

Like Herring, Bell did not respond to phone messages from The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent. Bell’s wife, Mindy Bell, said she is often subpoenaed in her capacity as a child protective services worker, but wasn’t aware of the subpoena the county received. 

State filings show Bell dissolved Automotive Truck and Customizing in August 2023. AW Herring Enterprises sold the Vinson Boulevard property in February 2024, according to county property records. 

The address to which Herring continues to have his business correspondence sent—510 S. Madison Street—also connects him with Vann Underwood, one of Whiteville’s preeminent businessmen. 

State records show that Underwood and his wife, Louise Underwood, are the managers of S & J Sea Coast Properties, which owns the Madison Street site. Underwood’s car dealership, another “relevant party,” is across the street. Underwood did not respond to calls and emails seeking an interview.

Some of the people named in the subpoena, however, were more forthcoming about their links to Herring and what they gleaned from investigators’ questioning. 

John Paul Lennon, owner of the Whiteville property management firm Atlantic Management Solutions, said in an interview that Herring hired him to remodel a former middle school to serve as a satellite office in the eastern part of the county. Lennon recalled Herring telling him it was difficult to find people willing to do small contracting jobs. 

When he was summoned before a grand jury, investigators’ questions centered on the bidding process, said Lennon, who worked as a Columbus County sheriff’s deputy in the 1970s and ‘80s. His wife, Susan Lennon, retired last year after serving more than 20 years in the sheriff’s office as a civilian administrative worker, including as Greene’s executive assistant. She, too, was named a “relevant party.” 

Herring no longer works at the sheriff’s office. Greene’s successor, Bill Rogers, suspended him without pay in November 2022, then demoted him to a courthouse deputy, dropping his annual salary from more than $85,000 to less than $50,000, The News Reporter revealed. Rogers then fired him just a few weeks later. Both men declined to say why. 

The insurrection connection

Two of the “relevant parties”—business owners Harrelson and Patrick—say investigators weren’t just interested in their financial dealings with the sheriff’s office. Both told The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent that many of the questions asked of them during their grand jury testimonies were about January 6, 2021. 

Harrelson and Patrick were among dozens of people, including some members of the far-right Oath Keepers, who rode a chartered bus from Columbus County to Washington, D.C., that morning to protest the presidential election results. 

While no one from Columbus County has been charged in relation to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, one of the indictments stemming from the attack refers to a Florida Oath Keeper leaving the North Carolina Oath Keepers’ leader’s place at 4:30 a.m. on January 5. Doug Smith, a Whiteville man, led the North Carolina chapter. 

Greene reportedly identified himself on Facebook as an Oath Keeper “since 2020” in a post that has since been deleted. 

In recent interviews, Harrelson and Patrick said Greene was not in Washington that day. “They’re adamant he went up there or gave us an escort up there,” Harrelson said of investigators. “That’s not true.” 

The county said in response to a request from The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent that Greene’s official vehicle was not equipped with location tracking, so data was not available. 

Smith, who rode the bus from Columbus County, told The News Reporter the group attended Trump’s speech in front of the White House but did not go to the Capitol. The state branch broke from the national group after the attack, which Smith called “an ugly stain on our nation’s history.” 

Harrelson said it was clear to him that prosecutors were interested in his avid support for Greene, whom he credits with being tough on drug dealers. He held a fundraiser in 2019 to help Greene pay for attorney’s fees stemming from the legal challenge to his election the prior year.

“They’re adamant he went up there or gave us an escort up there. That’s not true.”

Kevin Harrelson, owner of a tow company and auto body shop

But Harrelson said he never benefited from his relationship with Greene, adding that his business did about $20,000 worth of work for the sheriff’s office over four years—an amount he called “a drop in the bucket.” 

“I don’t mean to sound boastful,” he said, “but I’m the most successful body shop around here. I don’t need anything from the sheriff’s department.” 

Harrelson’s frequent mentions on the Facebook page of Underwood’s Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealership attest to his cash flow. Since 2019, the dealership has publicly thanked him for buying three Jeep Rubicons, a Dodge Challenger Hellcat Widebody Redeye, and a Ram 2500 night edition. One person commented in response to the photo of the most recent Rubicon purchase, “$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.” 

Patrick, who said Greene “did a damn good job of running the county,” called his own appearance before a grand jury a waste of time. “I can think of several different ways to spend that tax money,” he said. 

Rinse and repeat

Another tentacle of the federal investigation stretches into Chadbourn, a Columbus County town known for both its longstanding strawberry festival and a sordid history of official misconduct. 

The State Bureau of Investigation found such pervasive misbehavior at its police department in the 1990s that town leaders considered disbanding it. One of the officers with a job on the line back then was Greene. Investigators found that he and other officers had been storing seized drugs in their homes, among other things. While a sergeant faced criminal charges, Greene did not. 

More recently, as sheriff, Greene helped secure the arrest of a Chadbourn police chief who faked his death while facing corruption allegations. Investigators said Anthony Spivey stole drugs, guns, and thousands of dollars in cash from the department’s evidence locker. After pleading guilty to 14 felony charges, Spivey was sentenced in September 2023 to between 11 and 22 years in prison. 

Federal investigators now appear to be probing for similar activity at the sheriff’s office under Greene’s tenure. One of the people on the “relevant parties” list is Spivey. Also named are Chadbourn’s mayor, Phillip Britt, and his wife, town council member Shannon Britt. The couple also own B & B Guns, a federally licensed firearms seller. 

Phillip Britt, who serves as an auxiliary deputy for the sheriff’s office, told The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent that he answered a grand jury’s questions about his company’s handling of decommissioned guns for the sheriff’s office. Under North Carolina law, active law enforcement officers can buy the guns they use on duty once the firearms are no longer owned by the agency. 

Spivey did not agree to an interview, and Chadbourn’s attorney said neither the town nor the police department had received a federal grand jury’s subpoena. But the town has come up in at least one other way in the context of Greene-related investigations. 

An investigator with the district attorney’s office sought eight cell phones held in evidence by the sheriff’s office that were originally seized from a home in Chadbourn. The investigator argued in the 2022 search warrant affidavit, which referenced the federal probe, that the phones would provide evidence of “obstruction of justice and willful misconduct and maladministration.” 

Since then, auditors have combed through the sheriff’s office evidence room. They identified “no evidence of intentional fraud,” but found that 552 pieces of evidence were missing, nearly $3,000 in evidence boxes was unaccounted for, and 32 rape kits had

not been sent to the State Bureau of Investigation for testing, according to a 2023 report by North Carolina-based BlueLine Training Group, which offers instructional courses to law enforcement agencies. 

The auditors wrote that they “hand inspected” about 70 percent of the drugs in evidence, a percentage that “far exceeded any testing and auditing standard,” because items were mislabeled. Despite repeated requests from the news outlets, the sheriff’s office has not turned over the audit’s attachments, which describe the missing evidence and untested rape kits. 

At least two “relevant parties”—Amy Corder and Dustin Fowler, both of whom are still employed with the sheriff’s office— have had a role in overseeing the evidence room. Neither agreed to an interview. 

As investigators pore over his administration’s records, Greene has been keeping a low profile. 

In April, he opened Down South Home Inspections, which serves several counties in southeastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina. 

Some of Greene’s staunchest supporters say he should run for Columbus County sheriff again in 2026. So far, Greene hasn’t said publicly that he’s interested. 

Sammy Hinson, chairman of the Columbus County Republican Party, is doubtful Greene will. The former sheriff has racked up plenty of attorney’s fees since the investigations began. 

“When the system’s against you, it’s hard to fight it—especially when you’re having to write checks,” Hinson said. But Hinson said the local GOP would support Greene in a general election if he does run. 

“He may need lessons in how to handle himself,” Hinson said. “But I don’t have a problem with him. He did a good job.”

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Carli Brosseau is a reporter at The Assembly. She joined from The News & Observer, where she was an investigative reporter. Her work has been honored by the Online News Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors, and published by ProPublica and The New York Times. 

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Sarah Nagem is the editor of the Border Belt Independent. She has worked as a journalist in North Carolina for 15 years, reporting and editing stories about education, government, public safety, and more. Reach her at sarahnagem@borderbelt.org.