Three men say Lincoln County deputies searched their cars without consent

LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. — Three different men say deputies in Lincoln County went through their cars without consent.

The men told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon they feel like they are being targeted because of their race and their community.

The sheriff said in the case he’s familiar with, place, not race, is the reason.

Last week bystanders captured video of deputies around Dameterious Reeves’ car.

“It was belittling,” he said. Deputies searched him and Demory Williams, a passenger in Reeves’ car.

“They’re searching me going through my underwear, everything,” said Williams.

Reeves said he stopped to get gas and a deputy following him said he ran a stop sign in the Poplar Community near Boger City. More officers suddenly appeared and said they have to search the car.

“I told them that’s illegal and you can’t do that for a minor traffic stop,” said Reeves. “Let me call my lawyer and he told me I’m not allowed to call my lawyer.”

Reeves said deputies searched his Land Rover, found nothing and let them go with no charges.

Travis Lynch said the same thing happened to him in the same community a week earlier. He said he was quickly surrounded after being stopped for an expired registration.

“I didn’t feel safe about the whole situation from the jumpstart,” Lynch said.

The sheriff didn’t want to go on camera, but said in Reeves’ case: Reeves left a home under surveillance for drug trafficking, and it is legal in a case like this to stop a car after a traffic violation and conduct a search without consent.

He also said there’s a narcotic team making stops like this to stop the spread of drugs.

These men say the suspicion is placed on innocent people.

“Enough is enough,” Reeves said.

“It’s not right,” said Lynch.

The sheriff says a K-9 caught the scent of drugs outside of Reeves’ car, leading to the search.

He said he could not speak to Lynch’s case, saying he needed to gather more details.

Channel 9 spoke with two different defense attorneys who said yes, if you are pulled over for something else and a police dog smells drugs, it does give officers probable cause to search without consent.

One of the men we spoke to Monday has filed a complaint with internal affairs.

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