NC pastor was town’s Hero of the Year for 2 years straight. Then he filed a lawsuit.

Last year, the town of Winterville named hometown pastor Darron Carmon as its “hero of the year,” noting his long resume of charitable acts, proclaiming him in a town document as “a leader right in our community, making it better and safer for all.”

But this year, Carmon said, he learned Winterville would revoke that honor it planned to extend again this year, reversing its plans for one reason:

He filed a lawsuit.

The cancellation stings, especially because Carmon served eight years in prison for a robbery he did not commit, arrested by Winterville police when he was a teen in 1993.

The state admitted its mistake and exonerated him last year, long after he got released for good behavior, began pastoring two churches and started multiple nonprofits.

He was exonerated after his lawyers discovered Winterville police files contained a set of finger and palm prints taken from the robbery scene that were never released to Carmon’s attorneys. They do not match Carmon’s own prints.

In March, he filed a federal lawsuit against the town and two officers, arguing they fabricated evidence and seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Old wounds reopened

To Carmon, being deselected as “hero of the year” and being shut out of all communication from town officials because he chose to seek his own justice, reopens old wounds.

This would have been his third-straight “hero” recognition, he said. The Daily Reflector of Greenville has also since reported that the town held no observances Saturday on what would have been its fifth consecutive Pastor Darron Antonio Carmon Day.

“It’s almost like being victimized again,” Carmon said. “It’s a lack of integrity, a lack of concern, a lack of care.”

Neither Mayor Ricky Hines nor any of Winterville’s town council members responded to email messages seeking comment for this story.

Carmon was a 19-year-old pastor’s son in 1993, when police charged him with robbing the Fresh Way convenience store at gunpoint and taking $281.

But those officers, Donnie Greene and Emmanuel Armaos, arrested the young Black college student though he didn’t match the clerk’s description, his lawsuit says.

After calling 911, cashier Robert Thompson described the robber as 6 feet tall with his hair in an Afro; Carmon was 5-foot-6 and had short-cropped hair.

Also, the suit says, Greene and Armaos took finger and palm prints from the Fresh Way that did not match Carmon’s. But rather than submit the prints to prosecutors, Carmon or his attorneys, they placed them in an evidence locker, where they remained for 28 years.

In its 2022 “hero” proclamation, Winterville noted that Carmon went on to lead two churches that “fed the hungry and answered the greatest problems in our community.”

‘A hero for his many acts’

In an interview Monday, Carmon said his was the only church that operated during the COVID-19 pandemic, consistently preparing hot meals for those unable to work. The mayor wanted to use his church as a vaccination site, and Carmon agreed.

The town’s proclamation also notes Carmon’s Sikono Mentoring Program for children ranging in age from 3 to young adult, citing its “breathtaking 100% success rate.”

“He has talked people off the bridge, changed people’s mental status ...” the proclamation read. “Pastor Carmon is an exceptional pastor ... a man consistently jumping in the water to save people, the shining light on negative news, and a hero for his many acts.”

Town officials, again changing their habits, did not attend his church’s royal priesthood banquet in April, Carmon said.

The rules of professional conduct guiding NC lawyers generally prevents attorneys from discussing ongoing litigation with clients represented by other attorneys in the case, said Abraham Rubert-Schewel, Carmon’s attorney in Durham.

But parties in the case are not bound by the same rules, and while it is common for cities or counties to instruct people not to talk about lawsuits with the people who are suing, it is uncommon for them to be barred from speaking altogether.

“They could continue to honor Pastor Carmon about his service in the community,” Rubert-Schewel said. “It appears to be retaliatory.”