Charges of assault against police trainer dropped, but trainer and program stopped

Police have dropped assault charges against a police instructor at a Henderson County community college, but the state commission that certifies officers and training programs has suspended the college’s program and six of its instructors, saying they were guilty of “egregious violations of rules.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Attorney General Josh Stein said his office was investigating the program.

The assault charge was brought by Chase Matthew Quin, 24, of Pisgah Forest, who completed his basic police officer training last winter, according to a December 5, 2023 press release from Blue Ridge Community College.

Quin filed a simple assault charge against Deputy Isaiah Dwyer with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office last fall, according to a Nov. 16 Hendersonville Police Department report. In the report, the contents of which have been redacted, Quin said Dwyer attacked him with “personal weapons,” which can include hands, fists, feet and teeth, during a Nov. 15 training session. Quin suffered minor injuries, the report said.

The sheriff’s office asked the Hendersonville Police Department to investigate the charges, HPD spokeswoman Allison Justus told the Citizen Times on May 28. To avoid conflicts of interest, law enforcement agencies often ask the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate their officers when they are charged, but sometimes they turn to other local law enforcement agencies, SBI spokeswoman Anjanette Grube told the Citizen Times. The sheriff’s office did not say why it chose HPD.

“Our investigators have not found sufficient suspicion to bring charges,” said Justus.

That decision was made “about a week” after the charges were filed, she said. HPD Chief Blair Myhand said that happened a few days after all witnesses were interviewed, but did not give a specific date. The report lists three sheriff’s office employees as witnesses.

The Citizen Times was unable to reach Quin on May 28.

Reached by phone on May 28, Dwyer declined to comment and referred questions to the sheriff’s office. In a statement to the Citizen Times, Sheriff Lowell Griffin said District Attorney Andrew Murray also reviewed the case and found there was “no evidence of malicious intent.”

“Deputy Dwyer remains fully available for duty and is in good standing with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office,” Griffin said. A sheriff’s spokesman confirmed that no deputy has been suspended in connection with the college program.

“We support Blue Ridge Community College in its efforts to correct any problems and look forward to working with them in the future,” the sheriff said.

The sheriff’s office has been criticized over the past two years for questionable actions by its officers, including the shooting of a dog on its owner’s property, the beating of an elementary school student by a school security guard who didn’t remove his hood, the beating, stunning and handcuffing of Christopher Hensley of Fletcher, who died shortly afterward, and the shooting of an autistic man. Murray, the district attorney, declined to file charges in all but the last case — even though a legal expert said those charges were too lenient.

According to commission spokeswoman Laura Brewer, the six trainers will appear before the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission in August.

The Attorney General’s Office said the program was being investigated, but it remained unclear how this related to the commission’s work.

“I can confirm that our office is investigating, but I cannot comment on ongoing investigations,” Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Olivia Weidie said on May 24.

Brewer declined to comment further on the commission’s actions. Minutes of a commission meeting on May 8 did not mention the names of the instructors. The Citizen Times has requested the personnel files of all instructors in the program from the NC Community College System and Dwyer’s files from the county.

BLET program temporarily suspended

Blue Ridge spokeswoman Erica Allison said the college “immediately paused its BLET program last fall due to concerning circumstances and behavior by certain instructors.”

Allison declined to answer a question about any injuries to students.

The college has also reached out to the state commission to assist with an internal review of its law enforcement training program, Allison said May 28.

With a new strategy, the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission supported the BLET’s relaunch in spring 2024, she said. But the program has been canceled again, Allison said.

“After recently receiving additional information about conditions within the program, Blue Ridge leadership made the decision to voluntarily pause the BLET course on May 8,” she said.

Allison said the college’s findings about the program do not conflict with the commission’s findings. The students completed their training at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, she said, where they could complete the course in July.

She referred further questions to the state certification commission. While commission spokeswoman Brewer declined further comment, minutes from the commission’s May 8 meeting showed extreme measures taken by that appointed body, which concluded that there were “egregious violations of rules related to the Subject Control Arrest Techniques block of the BLET.”

These measures led to the urgent adoption of new regulations to solve the problem, the minutes say.

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