Local

Former deputy accused of impersonating officer after he was fired, records show

WATAUGA COUNTY, N.C. — A former Caldwell County sheriff’s deputy is accused of impersonating a law enforcement officer just a week after being fired.

Court documents say the incident happened in Watauga County on April 14. Records show Tim Wilson was not in a police vehicle, but was in a pickup truck with a red light on it when he pulled a woman over.

According to the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office, Wilson worked for 18 months as a sheriff’s deputy and as a bailiff at the Caldwell County Courthouse. They said he was terminated on April 6, and then eight days later was accused of pulling the woman over along Highway 321 west of Boone.

The arrest warrants say that after he approached the vehicle, he “yelled at her” and then demanded her driver’s license. The court papers say the victim was “frightened” during the incident and that Wilson “falsely represented” to her that he “was a sworn law enforcement officer.”

“He was screaming at me telling me to give him my license and I said, ‘You’re not a cop,’ and he said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And I said, ‘Show me your credentials.’ He said, ‘I don’t have to show you anything,” the driver told Channel 9′s Dave Faherty.

Deputies said that when he was fired, he had to turn in his gun, badge and uniforms.

The warrant goes on to say he also tried to get the victim to surrender her driver’s license.

The woman told Faherty that at the time of the traffic stop, an undercover officer with the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office was heading in the opposite direction but turned around after seeing the red light. She is thankful that officer stopped to intervene.

“Devine intervention, and I told him everything and he asked me if I’d be willing to go to court because what he did was illegal,” the driver said.

As part of his release, Wilson has been ordered to have no contact with that driver. He’s scheduled to go to court in a month.

Channel 9 learned that Wilson used to work as a sheriff’s deputy in Watauga County as well.

(WATCH BELOW: High school student, another woman pulled over by man pretending to be police officer, deputies say)