The Asheville Police Department and AB-Tech security are monitoring a bear sighting on the campuses of Asheville High School and AB-Tech. A lockdown of the school has ended, as the bears appear to have left the area. N.C. Wildlife Management has been notified.
The Asheville Police Department has released a composite sketch of a man who allegedly impersonated a police officer in a May 8 incident on Long Shoals Road.
As part of the $52,100 settlement of sexual harassment lawsuit by former Asheville Police Department officer Cherie Byrd against the city of Asheville and her former superior Eric Lauffer, the city received back all of the documents it provided to Byrd, according to records obtained by Xpress. The documents also reveal other details about the settlement.
After complaints about a sniper training exercise held Monday, May 16, in Pack Square Park, the Asheville Police Department will move remaining training to the APD firing range or the “secluded and empty” former Volvo plant.
The Asheville Police Departments arrested Jack Meredith Martin, 71, of Arden, this morning as the suspected gunman in the May 6 Country Inn robbery.
Photo from Asheville Police Department
Asheville Police Department Capt. Wade Wood will take over as interim police chief May 12, the city of Asheville announced today. Wood will replace Chief Bill Hogan, who announced his retirement last month amid controversy about the handling of the evidence room and the settlement of a sexual harassment suit against the department.
Photo from the city of Asheville
It seems, once again, that the spotlight has fallen on one of North Carolina's law enforcement agencies, and once again the system is wrought with corruption. This time the Asheville Police Department evidence room has been caught unable to produce the 400 oxycodone pills supposedly seized in a prior arrest. Police Chief [Bill] Hogan has […]
On April 18, Asheville Police Department Chief Bill Hogan has announced his retirement, effective May 13. The step comes amid public criticism over his handling of an investigation into missing evidence and the settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit involving a still-employed APD officer.
Asheville Police Department Officer Eric Lauffer, whose explicit text messages to his then-subordinate, Officer Cherie Byrd, were at the center of a sexual harassment lawsuit that the city settled this week for $52,100, is still employed by the department.
Photo by Jonathan Welch
It was a tense scene last night during the Asheville City Council meeting as District Attorney Ron Moore criticized the leadership of the Asheville Police Department for the handling of its evidence room. APD Chief Bill Hogan, meanwhile, said the problems were due to one individual who “betrayed the trust.” Council approved $175,000 to conduct a full audit.
The city of Asheville will settle a lawsuit from former Asheville Police Department Officer Cherie Byrd alleging that her superior, then-Sgt. Eric Lauffer, sent her sexually explicit text messages and phone calls. The city will pay Byrd $48,000 and reimburse her $4,100 in mediation fees.
A partial audit of the Asheville Police Department evidence room, completed last Friday and released by the District Attorney’s Office, reveals 115 missing items, including guns, drugs and money. The State Bureau of Investigation has sealed the evidence room, and are pursuing an investigation and full audit.
District Attorney Ron Moore will hold in abeyance APD felony cases while the State Bureau of Investigation looks into missing evidence in the APD property room. Meanwhile, Chief Bill Hogan asserts that the APD was following proper procedure in an earlier evidence audit, and calls the problems “regrettable.”
The State Bureau of Investigation has sealed, and is investigating, the Asheville Police Department property room due to 397 missing tablets of Oxycodone. The SBI claims the investigation was requested by the Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office, while the APD claims the investigation began internally. Records obtained by Xpress reveal that the APD’s longtime evidence manager was placed under investigative suspension before his resignation earlier this year, though an APD official says “it’s difficult to speculate” if that’s related to the investigation.
The city of Asheville is shifting staff as part of an effort to improve social media and community relations. Asheville Police Department spokesperson Melissa Williams will move into a general community relations role, including overseeing the city’s blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts, while Lt. Wally Welch will take on public information duties at the APD.
In a 12-page set of guidelines obtained by Xpress, the Asheville Police Department spells out its rules for using force, including oversight, criteria for reasonable versus excessive force as well as what qualifies as deadly and non-deadly weapons.
Chanting “cops, pigs, murderers,” and “smash the state, burn the prisons, anarchy and communism,” about 40 people gathered in Pack Square early this evening to protest police actions (including the arrest of 11 alleged vandals on May 1) and gentrification. The group marched down near the Buncombe County jail and up to Pritchard Park.
Photo by Jerry Nelson
An anonymous group of anarchists has claimed responsibility for a Nov. 24 vandalism of the Department of Corrections building on McDowell Street. Police say the vandals slashed several vehicles’ tires and painted slogans like “Burn Prisons” on the building.
An announcement from the Asheville Police Department warns that a landmark community graffiti wall in the River District is now off-limits.
The Asheville Police Department has arrested Jessica Renee Hall, 32, of Candler on charges of assault with a deadly weapon for a hit and run last night at Westville Pub. Below are photos of the scene from Andrew Fedynak.
The Asheville Police Department reports an apparent murder-suicide in East Asheville, leaving two — Diana Smith McGovern, 50 and William Michael McGovern, 51 — dead.
