LUMBERTON — Red Springs police Chief Ronnie Patterson and Town Manager David Ashburn are scheduled to appear in Superior Court on June 4 on charges of removing personnel files from the town office.
The two men were in Superior Court on Monday and were granted a continuance.
Patterson and Ashburn were indicted by a grand jury in September on misdemeanor charges that resulted from a four-month investigation by the Robeson County District Attorney’s office. The probe was launched after former Mayor John McNeill called for an investigation after The Robesonian published an article based on documents that showed Patterson lied to investigators in 2008 when he was accused of sexual harassment in a civil lawsuit and published a story.
McNeill was one of Patterson’s campaign managers during the police chief’s unsuccessful bid for sheriff.
Patterson, the town’s police chief since 2010, is charged with 10 counts of unlawful removal of public records and 10 counts of conspiracy to commit removal of public records. Ashburn, the town manager since January 2018, is charged with 10 counts of removal of public records, 10 counts of unlawful disposal of public records and 10 counts of conspiracy to commit removal of public records.
If convicted, Patterson and Ashburn each could be fined up to $500 on each count.
The investigation that reached into Dunn, Southport, Bladenboro, Lilesville, Raleigh, Fayetteville and Lumberton culminated on May 4 with Erich Hackney, District Attorney’s Office investigator, serving a search warrant at Red Springs Town Hall seeking all files and records related to Patterson.
Two bankers boxes that included Patterson’s personnel information were targeted after the investigation revealed that they were removed from Town Hall by Ashburn during the political campaign, which is a violation of the North Carolina Records Retention and Disposition Schedule, Hackney said.
The law requires certain records to be retained for specific periods of time. After the prescribed time period, the records may be disposed of only in a prescribed manner, according to Hackney. Giving those records to a current employee is not allowed.
Patterson and Ashburn are accused of removing the documents between Jan. 1, 2018, and Feb. 28, 2018. State law doesn’t allow town managers to have access to an employee’s personnel records unless there is an open investigation, according to Hackney.
Ashburn, who once worked as an interim county sheriff, was hired as town manager early during 2018.
