Panhandling charges against Joshua Rohrer dismissed

A veteran who said that he was mistreated by Gastonia police pleaded guilty to a traffic charge and will be funneled to the Catawba County Veterans Treatment Court, a special court that is focused on using the legal process to divert veterans from the criminal justice system.

Joshua Rohrer, 38, who served in the Army National Guard and spent time in Iraq, was arrested Oct. 13 and accused of resisting arrest and begging for money near the Gastonia Target store. Rohrer denies he was panhandling, although he said he frequented that area and often received gifts of food for himself and his service dog, Sunshine Rae, from passers-by.

Rohrer's arrest sparked outrage in the Gaston and Cleveland counties and with some veterans groups nationwide after witnesses claimed police were rough with Rohrer and Sunshine Rae. Rohrer has stated publicly that police used a taser on Sunshine Rae and assaulted him.

WCNC Charlotte asked that a judge force the Gastonia Police Department to release body camera footage of Rohrer's arrest, but the police department opposed the request, and Superior Court Judge Stephan Futrell refused to order the footage released.

Sunshine Rae escaped while Rohrer was in jail and was hit by a car and killed in Cleveland County.

On Wednesday, Rohrer appeared in Gaston District Court and pleaded guilty to driving while license revoked. All other charges against Rohrer were dismissed.

Rohrer's attorney, Jeff Thompson, asked Judge James Jackson to sentence Rohrer to 24-months supervised probation, which is required for Rohrer to be admitted into the treatment court in Catawba County, and Jackson agreed to the sentence.

Rohrer said in an interview with The Gazette that he is eager to get his court cases in Gaston County behind him.

Veterans Treatment Court, he said, will help him cope with the trauma he has experienced, access treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and train his new service dog, Justice Rae.

Rohrer is currently living in Shelby, but he plans to move to Catawba County.

Resolving his cases, he said, "would just help me to get some peace, because this has done nothing but stress me out."

He wants to educate others about mental health and PTSD, as well as other issues veterans face. He said he was nearly denied entry to the Gaston County Courthouse on Wednesday because he had Justice Rae with him. The deputies at the door, he said, thought he needed to have registration papers for his dog to be allowed entry.

"I thought I was going to have an issue right here in the courthouse," he said.

The treatment court in Catawba County will be the beginning of a new chapter for Rohrer "because I'll just be getting the help that I need, be able to focus on training her, and just healing from everything that happened and not have to stress about it."

"And I hope that it'll help the courts realize that veterans need PTSD treatment, mental health treatment," he said.

In Gaston County, Rohrer's case did spark that realization, District Attorney Travis Page said.

Page said that Gaston County court officials are hoping to start a veterans treatment court in Gaston that is similar to the one in Catawba County.

"We've had some talks. And we formed a steering committee," he said. "We'll need to pursue some grant funding and create some partnerships with some medical providers that are willing to assist our veterans."

In Catawba County, Veterans Affairs serves around 10,000 veterans. In Gaston County, the VA serves around 14,000, Page said.

"And so if Catawba County can sustain a veteran's treatment court with that population then I see no reason why we couldn't do the same here in Gaston County for our veterans," he said.

In addition to sparking a change within a court system, Rohrer's case fueled criticism of the Gastonia Police Department. On posts on the police department's Facebook page as recently as this week, commenters questioned the police department's handling of the case and officers' treatment of Rohrer and Sunshine.

In one instance, a personal social media post by a Gastonia police officer drew the ire of the public. A man who said he lives in Los Angeles sent police screenshots of the post in January, and the emails were recently released as part of a response to a public records request submitted by The Gazette.

One police officer, Officer Cierra Brooks, who was involved in Rohrer's arrest, posted on her personal social media account that defenders of Rohrer sounded "dumb as hell still talking about that dog incident supporting him."

She said that Rohrer "clearly was in the wrong."

"But whatever," she wrote. "Y'all still bothered and I'm still living, counting down the days until I'm at Mardi Gras."

In a follow up email to a supervisor, Brooks apologized for her post.

"It has taken everything in me to not respond to Joshua and his supporters for dragging my name through the mud when I was simply doing my job," Brooks said in the email to her supervisor in early January. "Everyone that I work with day in and day out will tell you that I may joke a lot but I don’t bother anyone. I keep to myself and only hang out with one person from shift. I don’t be out here looking for trouble. I come to work and handle my section and wherever dispatch sends me."

She said that people have been sending her harassing messages, calling her a "thug" and a "racist," as well as using profanity and a racial slur. She said that didn't "sit well" with her, and so she responded.

"I probably shouldn’t have. I don’t expect you all to understand because you’re not in my shoes. I’m not making an excuse for my actions that occurred on my personal page (that did not mention GPD), but hindsight 20/20, I should have been the bigger person," she said.

In late January 2022, Brooks received a three-day disciplinary suspension without pay. The Gastonia Police Department declined to say why she was suspended or whether it was at all connected to her Facebook post.

A different officer involved in Rohrer's arrest, Maurice Taylor III, resigned from the police department in February 2022.

A different email shed some light on the police department's policy as a whole.

In the email, Capt. Aaron Wurster released a list of goals for the Central District, which starts on its east side at Union Road and ends on its west side at York Road.

The third goal on the list for the 2022 fiscal year was to "find a solution that would deter the homeless from congregating in open areas that are visible" to passing motorists or businesses.

Police spokesman Rick Goodale said that that goal is part of the department's mission for the whole city, but he said that the issue of people who are homeless congregating in open areas seems to be more of a problem in the central district, "like around the downtown area."

He said that people walking in the street is a safety concern, and the police department has received complaints from businesses about people loitering outside their establishments.

"They feel that people congregating … out in front of businesses can tend to cause some patrons to feel unsafe about going into the business, if you know what I mean," he said.

Reporter Kara Fohner can be reached at 704-869-1850 or at kfohner@gannett.com. Support local journalism by subscribing here.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gastonia panhandling charges against homeless veteran dismissed