Huskey allegedly told authorities of planned attempt to kill several lawmen
Editor’s note: This is the third installment in a multi-part series that is a developing story. It is complex and involves numerous incidents, individuals and agencies. A civil rights lawsuit was brought by trout farmer Gerald “Gerry” Laschober against Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran and Bryson City Police Chief Charles Robinson. Attempts to interview Cochran, Robinson, and their attorneys have so far been unsuccessful.
Today’s installment is about Kyle Huskey, a police informant upon whose tip Laschober was named as a suspect seeking to kill Cochran, Robinson, and other law enforcement officers. A SWAT team raided Lascober’s home on Dec. 16, 2018, and seized numerous items. Charges against him were never filed and his belongings were returned to him.
Ela – Gerry Laschober, manager of Cooper Creek Trout Farm in Swain County, has had a series of brushes with law enforcement, culminating in a SWAT raid on his home, and allegations that he wanted to hire someone to kill the sheriff and several other local law enforcement officers.
The charges were stunning if true, but they weren’t, raising the question: Was it a bad tip, sloppy police work, or something more sinister?
Laschober, a 69-year-old Navy veteran who runs a storybook-trout farm on the edge of Smoky Mountains National Park, has no criminal record — not that local law enforcement hasn’t tried.
The timeline between Laschober and the law dates to 2015, but things intensified in 2018, when Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran was running for reelection (as he is again this year). During the spark that ignited in 2018, the one person whose name shows up four times in Laschober’s life, all in 2018, is Kyle Huskey.
Who is Huskey?
Huskey is a 27-year-old Swain County resident with a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2013. It started with the kinds of crimes one expects of a wild teenager – helmet and plate violations while he was riding a Moped, reckless driving and speeding, drunk and disorderly conduct, possession of alcohol by a minor, and driving a vehicle with expired inspection and no insurance. In almost every case, charges were dismissed by the DA.
In a couple of cases, Huskey was convicted of lesser charges in plea deals. In February 2013, for example, he was arrested for felony flee/elude arrest, but was convicted on the lesser charge of misdemeanor flee/elude arrest.
He was arrested in February 2015 for possession of a weapon of mass destruction – a sawed-off shotgun – and sentenced in Superior Court to 13 to 25 months in prison. While facing the weapons charge, he was arrested on drug and resisting arrest charges a month later and then again three months after that – all dismissed.
He served time in Swain County Jail from June to September 2015 and February through November 2016 on the weapon charge as well as operating a vehicle without a license.
After his release, the arrests resumed in 2017 – felony larceny of a motor vehicle, driving without a license, possession of drug paraphernalia. Except for one operator license violation, all charges were dismissed. But the one charge that wasn’t dismissed landed him back in Swain County Jail, where he spent eight months in 2017.
By the end of 2017, in addition to a continuing pattern of minor crimes and traffic violations, he started facing drug charges (methamphetamine). He was found guilty of misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia but all other charges were dismissed.
In September 2018, Huskey was arrested for misdemeanor larceny and marijuana possession – when he stole three of Cochran’s campaign signs. Charges were dismissed.
In December 2018, while still on probation, he was arrested for possession of a firearm by a felon, felonious restraint, misdemeanor assault on a female, resisting arrest, and possession of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia – all charges dismissed in a plea deal.
Even while in jail, he continued his track record, arrested for possession of methamphetamine and possession of a controlled substance while in jail.
Right now, he is serving time at FMC Lexington, an administrative-security, federal medical center with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp in Kentucky. Attempts to arrange an interview with him in prison are waiting decisions by Huskey and federal prison authorities.
Huskey’s rap sheet is long and – judging from the lengthy list of dismissed charges against him – remarkable. What his career as a criminal doesn’t include are major violent crimes – no murder, no murder-for-hire, no robberies, no arson.
Connection
Laschober knew Huskey’s father and uncle, who would would fish for trout on and near the trout farm, but other than one odd job he did for Laschober, the two barely knew each other.
Huskey was arrested for stealing Cochran’s campaign signs, Cochran announced the arrest on his Facebook page and hinted that he had information about a deeper conspiracy.
Huskey responded to the Facebook post, saying that it was just a prank. He stole three signs along a road lined with dozens of campaign signs, mostly for Cochran but some others as well, and planned to put the signs he took on his boss’ front yard as a prank.
Earlier that year, Jerry Lowery – a Swain County resident – complained to the Swain County Board of Elections that Cochran was ineligible to run for office because of an alleged dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corps. During a planned appearance before the board, Lowery was arrested at the Swain County elections office on a decade-old arrest warrant for an unknown suspect from a different county. A news crew from WLOS-TV Asheville had been alerted to the arrest in advance and was there to cover it.
Rocky Sampson – a former TVA federal officer and Bryson City police officer (among other law enforcement agencies where he has worked) – was running against Cochran for sheriff in 2018.
Just before the general election in 2018, Sampson, Lowery and Laschober arranged a meeting with Huskey at the request of a reporter from the Smoky Mountain News newspaper, to talk about Lowery’s allegations. The reporter canceled but the meeting took place anyway. The meeting, a “shoot the breeze” conversation on Laschober’s porch that was recorded, has Huskey giving his side of the arrest for the campaign sign theft.
Huskey said he was driving with his girlfriend with the Cochran signs in the back of the truck when he was pulled over by State Trooper Travis Cochran.
“It’s not what it looks like,” Huskey recalled telling Trooper Cochran.
“‘Oh it is what it looks like, you damn thief,’” he quoted the trooper.
Huskey said the trooper directed him to a gate at a nearby wilderness road and followed him there.
Huskey told his girlfriend that if she has a chance, just run, “because I know how dirty they are, you know?”
Once there, the trooper parked behind Huskey, and a short time later Sheriff Cochran drove up.
“I stick my head out the window, and I’m like, I was just doing a prank on my old boss, and he hit me in the mouth with that damn flashlight, Curtis did.”
The two lawmen dragged Huskey out of the Nissan truck and “slammed” his head against the bed of the truck, handcuffed him, and hit him in the kidneys while ordering him to stop resisting. They threw him backward and Sheriff Cochran put his boot on Huskey’s head.
“They would not let me talk, they were telling me that you hired me,” that Rocky Sampson hired him and was paying him to take the signs.
“There’s 30 signs on this road, why would I only take three?” he said.
On Dec. 15, 2018 – just a few weeks later – then-Swain County Sheriff’s Lt. Charles Robinson (now Bryson City police chief) and Deputy A.R. Holland arrested Huskey for possession of a firearm by a felon, felonious restraint, assault on a female, resisting a public officer, possession of marijuana paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.
It was during that arrest that Huskey allegedly told lawmen that Laschober had tried to hire him to kill Cochran, Robinson, and several other law officers.
Next week: A pattern emerges.