Sheriff Allegedly Encouraged Hitman to Kill a Deputy Who Had Audio of Top Cop Using Racial Slurs
A prominent North Carolina sheriff has been charged for his alleged involvement in a plan to kill a former deputy.
Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins was indicted on felony justice obstruction charges Monday after detectives obtained a phone call of him allegedly urging an unidentified man to kill former deputy Joshua Freeman.
Freeman was targeted because he had an audio recording of Wilkins using “racially insensitive language,” Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said according to The News & Observer.
When Wilkins was made aware of the threat to kill deputy Freeman, he did not warn the officer, but instead allegedly encouraged the hitman to move forward out of fear that deputy Freeman would release the audio of him using racist language to authorities, according to the indictment obtained by The News & Observer and CNN.
“The defendant failed to properly execute his duties because of his personal animosity towards Joshua Freeman, who defendant was told had expressed an intention to publicly disclose to authorities a purported audio recording of the defendant using racially offensive language,” the indictment states.
During the August 2014 conversation with the would-be hitman, Wilkins allegedly asked the man to “take care of it,” adding “the only way you gonna stop him is kill him,” according to the indictment.
The indictment also states that Wilkins also provided instructions on how to commit the murder without being caught.
“You ain’t got the weapon, you ain’t got nothing to go on,” Wilkins said during the phone call, the court records show. “The only way we find out these murder things is people talk. You can’t tell nobody, not a thing.”
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Wilkins also allegedly spoke about the time and location “of where the murder might successfully occur,” according to the indictment.
The plan, however, was never executed.
The indictment follows a 10-month long investigation.
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It is not immediately clear as to how Wilkins learned of the threat to kill deputy Freeman and how the officer obtained an audio recording of him using offensive language.
Wilkins appeared in court on Monday and was released on a $20,000 unsecured bond, CBS News reported.
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At this time he remains in office, a position he’s held since 2009.
District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said, “He can continue to serve if he chooses to until convicted.”
Both the District Attorney’s Office and the Granville County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
