Sheriff Allegedly Plotted Deputy’s Murder to Hide Racist Recording

The sheriff of a North Carolina county has been arrested for allegedly urging another person to kill his deputy, who planned to release a recording of him using “racially offensive language,” according to reporting by BuzzFeed News. On Monday, Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins was charged with obstruction of justice for the alleged 2014 plot against his former deputy, Joshua Freeman. According to the indictment, after learning Freeman possessed a tape of him using racist language, Wilkins spoke on the phone with an unidentified person about the killing, and they discussed the best way “to avoid identification.” They also allegedly discussed a potential time and place for the murder. The sheriff allegedly said, “You ain’t got the weapon, you ain’t got nothing to go on,” and “the only way we find out these murder things is people talk. You can’t tell nobody nothing, not a thing.”

The sheriff is charged for not arresting the would-be killer and failing to make efforts to prevent Freeman from being harmed, according to the indictment. It is not clear when Joshua Freeman left the sheriff’s office but he no longer works there.