NC lawmaker, former MCSO employees file petition to remove Meck Co. sheriff

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — North Carolina Rep. Carla Cunningham and four former employees of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office have filed a petition to remove Sheriff Garry McFadden from office, alleging attempted extortion, corruption and more. 

Along with Rep. Cunningham, former sergeant Marcia Crenshaw Hill, former chief deputy Kevin Canty, former captain Juan Delgado and former major Bryan Adams filed accusing the sheriff of misconduct, maladministration and habitual refusal to perform duties of the office. 

The misconduct accusations includes mismanagement of the county jail, retaliation against former employees and good faith whistleblowers, misuse of official resources, weaponizing the internal affairs unit against enemies while silencing internal investigations into allies, workplace favoritism and making threats against a state legislator. 

District Attorney Spencer Merriweather has received the petition and has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate the list of allegations.

In the petition, Rep. Cunningham says Sheriff McFadden threatened her, attempted to extort and bribe her over her support on House Bill 10 and House Bill 318, which McFadden opposed. 

Both HB10 and HB318 required sheriff’s offices to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Cunningham says McFadden threatened her on a call before the vote passed on HB318, telling her the people of the county would “come after” her and that he didn’t “want to see her get hurt: you live in my county.” 

During this time, political violence was in the headlines. Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed about a month before this encounter, and Cunningham was receiving threats for crossing party lines and voting with Republicans on the bills. 

Cunningham claims McFadden was attempting to extort a vote out of her by threatening her during this time and attempted to bribe her by only offering security and protection if she voted in his favor.

Former sergeants Crenshaw Hill worked in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center and says under McFadden, detention officers were in danger at work, contraband increased significantly and inmates were given more leeway despite violating jail rules, for example, inmates were still allowed visitation even if they behaved poorly because McFadden were overrule the visitation policy. 

This allegedly culminated to Crenshaw Hill getting stabbed by an inmate then subsequent firing. 

An inmate stabbed Crenshaw Hill in the neck with a homemade weapon in 2020, leaving her out of work on worker’s compensation for a year. McFadden blamed her for the stabbing, saying the stabbing happened because she entered the inmate’s cell, which violates policy. Crenshaw Hill maintains that she did not violate the policy since she entered the cell with other officers, which is a part of the policy. 

Crenshaw Hill qualified for medical retirement but was never told about the policy. Since she was fired after a year on worker’s comp, she couldn’t qualify for retirement. 

Canty, former chief deputy who resigned in November 2024 and accused McFadden of running the office “into the ground” then, explains further how the sheriff would open internal investigations into personnel he disliked or viewed as disloyal. 

Canty says McFadden pressured him to recommend the termination of Alexis Pearson, then head of HR, and Angelia Riggsbee, then director of Business Operations, even though Canty did not believe they did anything wrong. He claims McFadden wanted a “sock-puppet’s report” to accuse the two of misconduct instead of firing them at-will, which the sheriff has the power to do. 

The aforementioned Riggsbee filed a lawsuit in September 2025, alleging McFadden wrongfully terminating her in retaliation for reporting pay disparities and financial irregularities inside the department. 

Former captain Delgado worked at the detention center between training new detention officers and operating the Direct Action Response Team (DART). Delgado says he witnessed McFadden make promises to inmates that went against security policy so when officers continued to enforce policy, against what McFadden told inmates, the inmates would become upset and sometimes violent. 

Delgado says McFadden had the power to change security policy but never did, and would blame them when inmates or family members complained that officers were not following the promises McFadden made to them. 

McFadden also allegedly threatened Delgado near his retirement, saying “I am going to get you.” 

Former major Adams says McFadden played favorites and disregard policy to promote employees who were loyal to him, or “team sheriff,” despite failing tests or being unqualified.

This led to an internal work culture of paranoia and fear. 

Adams said McFadden promoted two employees to unqualified positions because they were his internal informants who would provide information outside the chain of command. In one case, an employee promoted to sergeant was demoted due to being overwhelmed by the amount of work. 

In another case, a deputy was promoted to captain even though the deputy failed the captain’s exam and showed up late to a training, which would typically disqualify a candidate. Adams claims McFadden had the choice of several, more qualified candidates but chose this deputy because she was on “team sheriff.” 

Adams also says the sheriff shut down an internal investigation into an insubordinate deputy because he was an internal informant. 

The petition asks the court to suspend McFadden while a decision is being made and then fully remove him from office once decided. 

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