City responds after vote to terminate Belmont police chief

BELMONT, N.C. — Some Belmont city council members voted to fire the city's police chief after an investigation in November to look into complaints of fear and intimidation.

Eyewitness News reporter Ken Lemon talked to city council about the termination letter and why some don't believe the allegations are true.

PAST ARTICLE: City council upholds termination of former Belmont police chief

At that time, the mayor said he supported Franklin 100 percent.

"Well, this was before I looked at the report," Mayor Charlie Martin said.

The report from the four-month investigation led the city manager to recommend Franklin be terminated.

READ: Letter of termination for former Belmont police chief

"I learned a lot of things that I didn't know," Martin said.

The city manager's letter lists 16 reasons to fire Franklin including inefficiency, negligence, or incompetence, missing from duty, threatening city employees and falsification of records.

Franklin covered up an officer's traffic accident, misused money seized from drug busts and blocked internal affairs investigations, the letter said.

"These things are obvious that you would not do," councilman Richard Turner said.

Turner voted to fire the chief Monday night, while councilman Charlie Flowers voted to keep him.

"Disgruntled employees in my opinion that didn't get their way," Flowers said.

The next chief needs to help the department get beyond this, some council members said.

For a month-and-a-half, they have acted under the leadership of an interim chief.

The search for a new chief should begin soon.

Franklin would not answer calls Tuesday.