District attorney now reviewing criminal cases involving CMPD officers linked to racist texts

CHARLOTTE — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson says the six officers involved in a newly uncovered racist text message scandal should be terminated, but the other side of the criminal justice system is just beginning to prepare for the fallout.

Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather says his office must now look at criminal cases, both pending and past, to see if any of these six officers deprived someone of justice.

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“If we can proceed, we will. In their absence, we will. If we can’t proceed in their absence, that’s a case we have to dismiss, and obviously there’s a public safety cost to that,” Merriweather said.

In her first public comments about the scandal, Patterson says she has asked federal partners to determine if anyone’s civil rights were violated.

U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson didn’t address that request but said the scandal doesn’t represent all of CMPD.

“There are always personnel issues in any organization. This one’s particularly bad because there’s no place for racism anywhere, obviously. But someone who wears a badge holds a tremendous amount of power,” Ferguson said.

As prosecutors dig through old and current cases, defense attorneys are doing the same.

“If there were convictions, if somebody was sent to prison,” defense attorney Chris Purkey said.

Once they find cases where one of these six officers was involved, even as a witness in court, they’ll begin to look for evidence of improper bias.

“Did your client report any off-color comments? Did your client report that they were maybe roughed up?” Purkey asked. “You definitely have to prove more than their involvement, right? You’re going to have to prove that their bias was a motivating factor in the prosecution of this individual.”

Both sides admit this scandal could lead to guilty criminals going free. But there’s also serious damage to public trust, especially among vulnerable victims of serious crimes.

“We’re in rooms with people who have lost kids. We’re in rooms with people who have had the sanctity of their homes violated, and when they’re at their most vulnerable, they ask for perfect strangers to enter their lives to try to bring some level of safety back to them. You got to be able to trust those people as they walk in the door,” Merriweather said.

Channel 9 asked Merriweather how many cases or people could be impacted by this scandal.

He says that’s something they’re still trying to determine, but it’s not something they plan to report publicly.

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