Suspended sheriff files for dismissal, continuance; court hearing postponed
Brad Hoxit
Robbinsville – It has been an eventful week in the civil case against suspended Graham County Sheriff Brad Hoxit.
District Attorney Ashley Welch filed a 53-page petition for removal and motion to immediately suspend Hoxit from office Jan. 29, amid a litany of allegations involving willful misconduct, intimidation and extortion. The Graham County Board of Commissioners voted the following day to suspend Hoxit's salary, and appointed chief deputy Travis Brooks to assume the duties and responsibilities of the office of sheriff.
The case revolves around Hoxit allegedly working to build a case around Graham County Commissioner Jacob Nelms, involving purported erroneous building-inspection reports and false time-card filings he submitted last year.
Welch alleged that Hoxit never disclosed his relationship with Nelms' ex-wife to the District Attorney until January, four months after the suspended sheriff met with Welch to seek guidance on pursing charges.
Following The Graham Star's two-part report on the civil case, Hoxit's attorney – Stephan Lindsay of Asheville-based Lindsay Law, LLC – has filed a motion for dismissal. A motion for continuance on Friday's hearing regarding Hoxit's future was filed Monday by Lindsay; Welch quickly filed an objection to the continuance, but Special Superior
Court Judge William T. Stezter granted the motion Monday afternoon. Stetzer will be overseeing the trial, after Superior Court Judge for Judicial District 43A Tessa Sellers recused herself from the case.
Additionally, a Friday amendment to the Jan. 29 filing includes new sworn affidavits from former Graham County Sheriff's Office Det. Graham Page; former sheriff Jerry Crisp; and current detention officer Jeff Oswalt.
What follows is a recap of the filings, summarized for brevity in this report.
Motions filed
The dismissal motion begins with the accusation that Hoxit was never notified about the Jan. 29 filing in advance and that the petition was ultimately served to a sheriff's office employee by an agent with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The motion said Hoxit had not been served "as of the filing," but the motion for continuance later notes that a video conference held with legal counsel Friday fulfilled the service.
The motion for dismissal continues by stating that a summons was never issued, which denied Hoxit "the cornerstone of the inalienable Due Process Right(s) of the Citizens of North Carolina."
A response to the motion for dismissal was not received, but Monday's motion for continuance stoked the flames. Reiterating the belief that Hoxit was never forewarned of what was coming, the filing adds that Welch was "aware of the underlying basis" surrounding the Hoxit case since late-August or early-September, and states the belief that the District Attorney's office had five months to prepare for the trial; plus access to funding and personnel in her office, subpoena power, and access to the state Department of Insurance, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Graham County Sheriff's Office.
The filing notes that Hoxit has had two weeks to retain legal counsel; lost his county paycheck and access to the sheriff's office; has not seen discovery. Additionally, Hoxit is set to be in Buncombe County on Monday for State v. Ilesanmi Adaramola, a case that has seen several continuances and looks to be first on the docket.
At one juncture, the motion for continuance calls Hoxit's case a "trial by ambush."
Welch responded quickly Monday, responding to each matter brought up in the continuance motion. She said a State Bureau of Investigation agent from Charlotte called Hoxit the morning of Jan. 29 and advised him of the petition – plus the need for service. Hoxit never arrived to the Graham County Sheriff's Office that day, instead phoning the agent and asking if they could meet at Hoxit's attorney's office in Sylva.
In light of Winter Storm Gianna, the agent instead served a sheriff's office employee with the petition. Welch noted in her objection that Hoxit was personally served at 12:36 p.m., Monday, by Brooks, and said that attempts had been made over "several days. It is the District Attorney's belief that the defendant was evading service."
Welch also pointed out that Hoxit had knowledge of what was on the horizon, obtaining legal counsel "almost immediately."
Running through some of the other points brought up by Lindsay's filing on behalf of Hoxit, Welch said:
* Stating that her office had five months to prepare for the case was "inaccurate;"
* Welch said she does not have subpoena power;
* The Department of Insurance and State Bureau of Investigation have "enormous workloads" and the Graham County Sheriff's Office acted under Hoxit's direction;
* Welch said Hoxit should not have access to the sheriff's office, its computers or employees ahead of the trial. Welch then drops a massive bit of news, stating that the District Attorney's office has information that – since his suspension – on at least one occasion, Hoxit has been seen at the sheriff's office "for several hours." He appeared to be unsupervised, including around the evidence room. Hoxit is alleged to have left the office with a USB drive;
* Welch stated her belief that Hoxit is not entitled to discovery, noting that it "would not be in the interest of justice in this case for several reasons."
* Welch indicated that attempts to intimidate witnesses had already occurred.
Stetzer signed the order to continue the hearing Monday evening, with the caveat that any additional motions had to be filed by Wednesday.
New affidavits
Page's affidavit provides expanded background on when Hoxit began trying to build a case toward Nelms.
Signed Feb. 11, Page's testimony said that he was first approached by Hoxit as "Operation Dirty Laundry" wrapped up in November 2024. The operation was a multi-agency investigation that lasted 11 months and led to the arrests of over 40 individuals on charges relating to alleged illegal drug and gambling activity in Western North Carolina.
Hoxit said Nelms was "dirty" and that a private resident had complained about his abilities as building inspector. Page said he felt pressured by Hoxit, but compiled and met with the resident several weeks later about the matter.
As the investigation began to build, Hoxit said he had a "conflict" and did not want to interfere, but would not reveal what the conflict was. Furthermore, Hoxit instructed Page to utilize former Graham County Sheriff's Office Attorney David Wijewickrama as his "sole contact" on the case, stating that he could help Page "obtain search warrants, tracking orders or anything else I needed."
Wijewickrama and Page later had a clandestine meeting at a gazebo in Bryson City, where Page updated the attorney about the case. Wijewickrama emphasized that Hoxit had to be "protected" and kept out of the loop, regarding the investigation.
During the meeting, Wijewickrama allegedly made several phone calls – including to the reported attorney for the Iredell County Sheriff's Office, who said he could get sealed search warrants that would not be seen by the District Attorney's office by an "out-of-distance Superior Court Judge" that would grant the filings. The orders were for tracking devices to be placed on Nelms' vehicles.
Wijewickrama and Page later met with Superior Court Judge Alan Thornburg in Buncombe County, where Thornburg signed the tracking order. Page said he never asked for the order to be sealed.
Despite the attorney's request, Page said Hoxit called him almost daily for updates about the investigation.
"The phone calls became very frustrating and, at times, overbearing," Page said in his affidavit.
Eventually, Page informed Brooks about the investigation. Page said he never placed the tracker "due to safety and security concerns," but Page and Brooks accomplished the task while Nelms' vehicle was parked outside a residence one night. Page stated that Hoxit was adamant that it occur on the evening in question – to the point that Page was asked to drive his wife's personal vehicle to the sheriff's office and pick up Hoxit to take him to the residence where Nelms' vehicle was parked.
Page said Hoxit did not initially have access to the trackers, but eventually asked for access and Page compiled. Page later found out the Department of Insurance was taking over the case, but Hoxit still wanted updates on the matter.
As the investigation grew, Page contacted Thornburg again and asked for the tracking order to be renewed. Page said around this time, Wijewickrama stopped answering his calls and texts.
"I then began to believe something bad was going on with David Wijewickrama and Hoxit or something else …" said Page.
Page revealed that Hoxit had obtained screenshots from an individual that allegedly showed Nelms was approving building permits through photographs and told N.C. Department of Insurance Special Agent Jasmine Harline that a search warrant for Nelms' phone should be obtained before Nelms and his attorney met with Harline in Gastonia. Page was on-hand when the meeting took place and seized the phone from Harline at the conclusion of the meeting.
Shortly after Hoxit's August meeting with Welch, Page underwent emergency surgery at Mission Hospital in Asheville. While still in the facility, Page said he received calls from Hoxit and Det. Larry Jenkins about the Nelms case.
Once Page returned to light duty, Hoxit said he wanted "every page of the phone downloaded printed and put into binders."
"I was not going to do that," Page said. "After this, I didn't keep up with the case anymore."
Page was only back at work for a few weeks, but learned that at least three copies of Nelms' cell phone had been downloaded. He later resigned from the Graham County Sheriff's Office, stating that he was out of sick time, vacation time and FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) time.
Page said he left the entire case file on Nelms at the sheriff's office upon his exit.
Former sheriff
Jerry Crisp served as Graham County Sheriff from 2020-22. When he lost his re-election bid in the 2022 primary, he endorsed Hoxit.
Crisp's affidavit said Hoxit called him Dec. 26 and asked if the two could meet at the sheriff's office. They met at 8 p.m., that evening, where Hoxit asked Crisp to come back to work and assist the office with the investigation. Brooks and Jenkins were also present for the meeting.
Crisp said Hoxit also wanted to investigate other county commissioners and county officials, including county clerk Kim Crisp.
"They were all trying to cover up for Jacob Nelms," Hoxit allegedly told Crisp.
Hoxit updated Crisp on the tracking devices and asked Crisp to go meet with Welch.
Crisp told Hoxit that he was retired and did not want to interfere with that, while adding that his wife did not want Crisp to re-enter law enforcement. Hoxit allegedly told Crisp that he could "contract" with him. The meeting lasted two hours and Hoxit said if Crisp came back, he should tell people Hoxit had "nothing to do with it" and that the meeting was "confidential."
Page called Crisp the next day. Crisp had hired Page when he was sheriff and Page confided his concern that Hoxit was going to "throw him under the bus." Page said he was in Indiana, but would resign when he returned the following week; Crisp said Hoxit had told him the night before Page was "probably" going to resign.
Crisp said he would give Page a recommendation in Indiana, before Page allegedly told Crisp that Hoxit had lied to Welch and tried to get Page to do the same. Page said he had already met with Assistant District Attorney Jim Moore and "had enough information to put Brad Hoxit under the jail."
Crisp said he cautioned Page to tell the truth and do nothing illegal. He later phoned Hoxit and told him he would not be coming back to work.
Secret recording
Jeff Oswalt's affidavit backs up a claim made by former detention officer Vanessa Carpenter in her affidavit.
Stating that the two were shift partners, Oswalt said an unidentified inmate was supposed to be transferred to the N.C. Department of Corrections – but was kept at the Graham County Detention Center at the direction of Hoxit, who wanted to use the inmate as a "narc."
During one interaction, Oswalt said that Carpenter was directed by Hoxit to secretly record an interaction between Carpenter, Oswalt and the inmate. Oswalt's affidavit said that after the recording, both Carpenter and Oswalt were warned by Hoxit to "not say anything, or we would never work in law enforcement again."