Assault charge against officer in Asheville traffic stop dropped; second mistrial
ASHEVILLE - An assault charge against a former Buncombe sheriff's deputy has been dismissed following a second mistrial.
Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams said June 5 his office has dropped the charge against ex-sheriff's deputy Tyler McDonald after deciding the chances of winning another trial appeared slim.
McDonald, 29, was convicted of misdemeanor assault in Buncombe County District Court after a judge said he kneed Jamie Dean Burleson in the ribs in a 2020 traffic stop. Burleson had resisted officers but was lying handcuffed on the ground and not resisting when McDonald kneed him, the judge said. McDonald appealed to Superior Court where a hung jury resulted in a May 12, 2022, mistrial. The DA's office looked to prosecute again this year. But a trial that started last month ended May 12 when Judge Jacqueline Grant said the proceedings were invalid because of the failure to turn over a piece evidence to McDonald's attorney.
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Grant declared a mistrial − rather than dismissing the case herself − because she determined there was "no bad faith" by prosecutors who said they did not have the evidence, Williams said. That would have allowed the DA to try the case again, though he opted not to, he told the Citizen Times.
"After two Superior Court jury trials both ending in mistrials − including informal polls of the jury conducted by the trial judge after each mistrial − prosecutors informed the victim that future prosecution is unlikely to yield a unanimous verdict and filed a dismissal of this charge with the Clerk of Superior Court," the DA said.
"The state thanks the victim for his cooperation in the prosecution of this matter," Williams said.
Neither Burleson nor McDonald could be reached for comment May 5.
McDonald's attorney Doug Pearson declined to speak in detail about the case but said he is pleased it was over for McDonald after three years.
"I am glad that the case is resolved for my client and that this ordeal has been put behind him," Pearson said.
While McDonald's clean record meant he would have served no jail time, it would have ended his law enforcement career, a job he said he strived for as a youth. Sheriff Quentin Miller fired him shortly after the 2020 traffic stop. McDonald has been unable to work in law enforcement since then and faced financial difficulties, his attorney said.
McDonald's record shows he was suspended twice: after the 2020 traffic stop by Miller and in 2017 for two days without pay by then-Sheriff Van Duncan. That was after a family said McDonald and other deputies beat them when they sought help. The county settled a civil suit with the McMahan family for $167,500, with one elected official, Buncombe Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, publicly apologizing to the family.
Miller terminated McDonald, he said, after viewing body camera footage of the traffic stop. Shortly after, he contacted the State Bureau of Investigation which initiated a probe whose results Williams received before deciding to prosecute.
In pretrial proceedings last month, Grant ruled against a motion by the defense to prohibit prosecutors talking to the jury about high-profile police brutality cases, such as George Floyd's murder. While Floyd's and other cases used as examples during the May 8 proceeding involved Black people killed in encounters with white officers, both McDonald and Burleson are white.
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Pearson, the defense lawyer, also argued that evidence rules were broken because a use of force report had been given to him by assistant district attorneys just before the start of the trial. But ADA David Denniger said the report did not contain evidence that could clear McDonald of guilt, and therefore he was not legally required to disclose it, and did so only out of professional courtesy.
Four days later, though, Grant found that another piece of evidence, a Computer Aided Dispatch, had information that could call into question the credibility of a prosecution witness, leading her to declare a mistrial.
Williams said that his office had requested in writing the document from the Sheriff's Office but did not receive until "mid-trial."
Sheriff's spokesperson Aaron Sarver, though, said the DA's office only "specifically requested" the document during the last day of the trial "and we promptly produced the document."
Asked about the sheriff's attitude about McDonald's actions now that the charge had been dropped, Sarver declined to say, though noted McDonald was fired for policy violations, a determination made before any criminal charges were filed.
Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Assault charge against officer in Asheville traffic stop dismissed
