* First in a series
Editor’s note: This is a developing story. It is highly complex and involves numerous incidents, individuals, and agencies. Today, The Graham Star starts where it stands as of today – a federal civil rights lawsuit by a trout farmer named 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.
Ela – Gerald “Gerry” Laschober is representing himself in a federal lawsuit against Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran and Bryson City Police Chief Charles Robinson, alleging that they and possibly others violated his civil rights in an ongoing campaign to “harass, intimidate, and terrorize” him.
Laschober – who manages Cooper Creek Trout Farm in rural Swain County, on behalf of a trust he set up for his adult children – filed the lawsuit in Swain County Superior Court. It was moved to U.S. District Court in Asheville, at the request of Cochran’s and Robinson’s lawyers.
Charlotte-based lawyer Sean Perrin has filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying that Laschober “fails to allege any facts that defendants violated plaintiff’s constitutional rights.”
Laschober is working on his response and has until Monday to file it.
Laschober told The Graham Star that the lawsuit stems from an incident in December 2018 when law enforcement agencies – including a SWAT team – raided his home after a series of confrontations with law enforcement over several years.
“It makes no sense. It’s all made up,” he said about the affidavits filed in support of the search warrants. “They were just trying to kill me. It was a conspiracy to commit murder.”
He said Sheriff Cochran and then-Sheriff’s Lt. Robinson were “weaponizing the law.”
The facts of the case are this:
Around Dec. 15, 2018 – acting on a tip from an informant passed on by Robinson – N.C. State Bureau of Investigation Agent S.R. Ashe obtained three search warrants for phones associated with Laschober and informant Kyle Huskey.
Based on what they found in one phone record, Ashe obtained a search warrant for the residence at Cooper Creek Trout Farm where Laschober lives.
The key piece of evidence was a text from Laschober to Huskey saying, “100lbs is possible within 2 weeks time.”
The alleged crimes prompting the search warrants were Conspiracy to commit the felony of First Degree Murder; Solicitation to commit the felony of First Degree Murder; and Solicitation to malicious use of explosive or incendiary.
As agents from the SBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and a Cherokee-based SWAT team descended on Cooper Creek Trout Farm, Ashe called Laschober’s phone and asked to meet him at the Microtel Inn & Suites near Bryson City. Ashe interviewed Laschober at the hotel, as the residence was being searched.
Later that evening, Ashe released Laschober without charging him with any crimes.
On Oct. 31, 2019, District Attorney Ashley Welch wrote Laschober a letter telling him that she had reviewed the file and determined that “sufficient evidence does not exist to prosecute you for any alleged conspiracy… I sent the SBI a letter requesting they close the case.”
The story doesn’t end there and – as it has been said – the devil is in the details, both what is said and what was left out.
If what Laschober says is true, he has been the victim of an ongoing terror campaign by members of the Swain County Sheriff’s Office as well as Bryson City officials and even the state Highway Patrol, with members of N.C. SBI, the ATF, the Cherokee-based SWAT team, journalists, N.C. Department of Transportation and even informant Kyle Huskey, as unwitting participants.
Next week: It started with a gate.