Case in federal court against Swain County sheriff, Bryson City police chief
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Gerry Laschober poses at the federal courthouse in Asheville on Monday, when he filed his response to a defendant’s motion to dismiss.
* Second in a series
Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a multi-part series that is a developing story. It is highly complex and involves numerous incidents, individuals and agencies. A federal 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 starts from the beginning.
Ela – It started with a gate.
In 2005, Gerry Laschober bought Cooper Creek Trout Farm, a storybook patch of land at the end of Cooper Creek Road backing up to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Bryson City.
He soon noticed that the road – then considered state-owned and maintained – was being used by illegal game hunters and drug dealers. After some research, he found that his section of Cooper Creek Road was neither owned nor maintained by the state and he installed a gate.
That triggered the first of Laschober’s confrontations with law enforcement – in this case the Highway Patrol, which brought an N.C. Department of Transportation crew and heavy equipment to dismantle the gate. Documentation and a meeting with a Highway Patrol sergeant put the brakes on that operation.
In October 2015, Laschober confronted bear hunters who were using his by-then recognized gated and private road as a cut through to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where hunting is illegal. Two members of the hunting party were uniformed members of the Swain County Sheriff’s Office. Laschober complained to Sheriff Curtis Cochran and – finding no support there – to the Swain County Board of Commissioners, during which Sheriff Cochran called him a liar.
In March 2017, Laschober was arrested and charged with various crimes, when he avoided a roadblock that turned out to be a law enforcement checkpoint of unmarked cars, in violation of state rules governing how checkpoints should be handled. He was forcefully handcuffed, injuring his shoulder – the handcuffs so tight they left marks on his wrists.
More than 22 months later – after insisting for a jury trial – charges were dropped.
In June 2017, three sheriff’s deputies climbed over his gate and crossed onto the trout farm in search of a missing hunting dog. During that confrontation, then-sheriff’s Lt. Charles Robinson wielded a shotgun and threatened to “cut you in half” when Laschober – who was also armed – asked them to leave. Laschober took pictures of the incident on his cell phone as it unfolded.
From 2017-18, Laschober backed Bryson City Patrol Officer Rocky Sampson in his bid to be elected Swain County Sheriff. Cochran, then running for reelection, voided his department’s mutual aid agreement with the Bryson City Police Department because Sampson was running against him.
Around summer 2018, Laschober made a complaint to the FBI about Cochran, alleging a pattern of Civil Rights violations. The FBI declined to pursue the complaint.
C-4?
In December 2018, deputies including Robinson, arrested Kyle Huskey, who has a long list of prior crimes ranging from possession of a weapon of mass destruction (a sawed-off shotgun) to stealing Sheriff Cochran’s campaign signs. It was during that encounter that Huskey requested to be interviewed – but not in front of a camera – to share information he had about Laschober in hopes that he would escape his most recent charges.
Huskey allegedly told Robinson that “it was going to get bad and this guy is serious.”
From the probable cause statement of the search warrant affidavit:
Huskey said “he knew a guy that wanted to pay him $10,000 to $15,000 and the guy had a hundred pounds of explosives and that (lawmen) Doug Woodard, Aaron Ammons, Curtis Cochran, and Charlie Robinson (were) on the list.”
Woodard is a Swain County sheriff’s deputy. Ammons is a state Highway Patrol trooper.
He identified “the guy” as “Cooper’s Creek Gerry.”
The alleged plan was to “take out” Sheriff Cochran at his home with 100 pounds of C4 explosive and put a pig’s head on Robinson’s wife’s car. He said Laschober had shown him where the sheriff and Robinson lived, and told him to “take out” the sheriff first.
Huskey allegedly said that Laschober threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the plans.
Based on the Huskey information, law enforcement obtained warrants for Laschober’s cell phone and two cell phones belonging to Huskey. There, they found a single text: “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;
* Solicitation to malicious use of explosive or incendiary.
As agents from SBI, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 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.”
On its face, there are a few problems with the scenario described in the warrant.
Laschober was in Seattle at the time and while there, injured his back and was laid up from the injury when he got home. He had not met with Kyle Huskey.
Also, the warrant affidavit describes Huskey as an occasional worker on Laschober’s trout farm. Laschober had worked for him just once, but had exchanged texts with him about getting more work. Huskey’s father and uncle, on the other hand, often fished on Cooper Creek at Laschober’s trout farm, with his blessing.
That brings up the incriminating text, “100lbs is possible within 2 weeks time.”
According to Laschober, Laschober offered to let Huskey’s father fish in his ponds, but he needed to wait a couple of weeks for the fish to grow, at which time he could get 100 pounds of fish if he wanted.
Next, one of the names on the alleged hit list, Woodard, is the father of Huskey’s girlfriend. It seems implausible that someone hired to kill his girlfriend’s father wouldn’t raise a red flag early in the process.
Then there are the logistics of obtaining 100 pounds of C-4.
C-4, or Composition C-4, is a common variety of the plastic explosive that can be exploded only by the shock wave from a detonator or blasting cap.
C-4 is not easily obtainable, particularly 100 pounds of it, nor would it be cheap.
Prices for black market C-4 are difficult to find online, particularly without triggering a response from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The Graham Star was unable to find specific prices without resorting to the Dark Web, but generally prices range in the hundreds of dollars or more per pound.
According to online sources, one pound of C-4 can easily blow up a car, destroy a single-family house, snap a railway track or blow up a light traffic bridge. A hundred pounds of C-4 might be considered excessive considering the expense.
Laschober argues that law enforcement should have realized how ridiculous Huskey’s claim was — if Huskey made that claim at all.
Update on the case
Charlotte-based lawyer Sean Perrin, representing Cochran and Robinson, had filed a motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit, saying that Laschober “fails to allege any facts that defendants violated plaintiff’s constitutional rights.”
Laschober filed his response to the motion in federal court in Asheville on Monday.
In his filing, Laschober argued that the defendants are attempting to escape liability under all charges, even without evidence, most of which they have in their own files. Laschober said the motion should be dismissed in its entirety, “otherwise the Bill of Rights is meaningless, civil rights do not exist and we live in a police state.”
“ … The actions they undertook which created the predicate for this case and therefore the plaintiff’s understandably strong response to the same, was essentially an assault to both the plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights, his Second Amendment rights as the motion was drafted, and his civil rights.
“The underlying warrant for the events that gave rise to this case are based on allegations made by a serial police informant, Mr. Kyle Everett Huskey. Mr. Huskey has made a career out of police informing. He made unfounded allegations that the Plaintiff wanted to murder and blow up various important local law enforcement figures. This informant, upon whose information the underlying events were predicated, has been charged multiple times with egregious felonies, but for some reason, every single charge has been resolved in a plea agreement.”
A ruling in the case is expected to take several weeks.
Next week: Who is Kyle Huskey?