NC deputy accused of planting drugs after break-up takes plea deal

A former North Carolina deputy accused of planting heroin and other drugs on his ex-girlfriend’s new beau avoided jail time with a plea deal and will serve 24 months probation, a judge ruled Friday.

David Scott Burroughs was accused of abuse of law enforcement power and planting drugs in Ray Kifer’s car in Anson County. He was charged in April 2019 with making a false police report, obstructing justice, breaking and entering a motor vehicle and possession of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. A jury deemed him guilty only of obstruction of justice and possessing heroin.

Burroughs avoided what could have been up to 53 months in jail by agreeing to supervised probation, mandated anger management counseling and no contact with his ex-girlfriend or Kifer, as proposed by District Judge Stephan Futrel.

Burroughs appeared in court Friday alongside his attorneys, Leah Catherine Austin and Anna Goodwin. His ability to return home was the best Mother’s Day gift, said his grandmother. She was one of seven family members present at the three-day-trial.

While the criminal case has been decided, Burroughs could again appear in court for a lingering civil lawsuit. In it, Burroughs’ romantic rival delves even deeper into an alleged illicit revenge scheme, claiming jealousy drove the deputy to do more than plant drugs.

The judge denied Burroughs’ lawyers’ motion to initially dismiss charges of breaking and entering a motor vehicle and possession of marijuana and heroin with intent to distribute. They argued officers never testified to identifying the substances, which could invalidate the charge. The state, represented by Matt Victory, argued Burroughs provided enough evidence when he admitted to planting the drugs in Ray Kifer’s car.

NC deputy found guilty

In rural Anson County, cellphones weren’t at all allowed past the courthouse’s marble staircase, which funneled in thirteen onlookers and jurors Friday. They sat spaced throughout Courtroom 1 — the largest of the building’s two rooms. A green chalkboard sat tucked in the corner with faded chalk lines. Through the windows, steeples and water towers peeked above treetops about 50 miles southeast of Charlotte

Before the judge’s gavel pierced the barren room, a group of onlookers whispered about how shameful the trial had been — of how corrupt the department had gotten. Courthouse staff rotated through the room, catching bits of witnesses’ testimonies and attorneys’ arguments.

Anson County Sheriff Landric Reid — who died in September 2022 — said previously deputies received a tip about drugs in Kifer’s car days before a traffic stop led to his arrest. Those drugs were in the exact spot the tipster said they would be, Reid said.

“That was a red flag because anyone selling drugs wouldn’t have them Sunday to Wednesday in the same place,” Reid said in 2021, according to WSOC.

As attorneys finished their closing statements Friday, at least eight officers lined the back of the courtroom.

“I think they’re here for a free show,” said Burroughs. “They want to be able to say they got away with it.”

Burroughs, along with his parents, grandparents and other family members, maintained the former deputy had been set up by a corrupt system. They blamed Reid, mostly.

“This whole town is corrupt,” Burroughs’ father said.

Next to the courthouse, at Oliver’s Hometown Restaurant & Bar, a group of four men eating lunch while the trial court took a recess agreed. Among them sat the mayor and county manager, who declined to comment on the case. But, Boogie Short agreed to talk.

Short, a 38-year-old forester who has lived in Wadesboro for 20 years, said he wasn’t sure what he thought about the trial, but he sure wasn’t surprised.

Planted drugs

The civil lawsuit Kifer filed against Burroughs and four other deputies details incidents not mentioned in his criminal trial.

It claims the deputy would cruise through his ex’s neighborhood and waltz into events he was not invited to. One night, according to the lawsuit, Burroughs threatened Kifer from his patrol car and later lurked outside his ex’s bedroom, recording sounds of her and Kifer in bed.

The harassment worsened when deputy David Spencer, a friend of Burroughs’, closely trailed Kifer’s car as he drove his girlfriend to work, according to the complaint. On his way home, Spencer returned, this time with a siren and blue lights.

Spencer told Kifer he had been speeding and that he smelled marijuana inside the car, according to the lawsuit. Kifer said both allegations were untrue.

More deputies and a federal agent showed up, and Kifer was later handcuffed and put in a sheriff’s office SUV, the lawsuit claims.

Once in the patrol vehicle, Kifer alleges deputies made a mysterious stop outside a nondescript building near a small airstrip on their way to the sheriff’s office. He thought they were going to kill him, Kifer says in the lawsuit.

He was told, however, that a narcotics investigator had to pick up something. His lawsuit alleges the item being picked up were the drugs later used to frame him.

During the two-hour interrogation that followed, Kifer denied dealing drugs. According to the lawsuit, police said they would take Kifer to a magistrate’s office, where he would be formally charged. After deputies left him in a waiting room, where his father and stepmother soon joined him, Spencer and Beam came in and told Kifer his charges had been dropped and his car would be returned.

One month later, the State Bureau of Investigation told Kifer that Burroughs had planted the drugs in his car.

The pending lawsuit accuses all four involved deputies of constitutional violations, false arrest, unlawful seizure, gross negligence and intentional/reckless infliction of emotional distress. Kifer has requested a jury trial. If one occurs, it would take place in Charlotte.

The sheriff’s department submitted a summary judgment asking the judge to throw the case a few months ago, according to Scott MacLatchie, who is representing Burroughs in the civil case.