Prosecutors say the sheriff helped the plot to assassinate the deputy when registering a "racial offensive" gang

The Granville County Sheriff, Brindell Wilkins, learned that one of his deputies had recorded a tape showing him "commenting" racially offensive, "said the attorneys. North encouraged another man to kill the policeman, according to a crime indictment revealed Monday evening.

"The only way to stop it, is to kill him," Wilkins would have told a prospective gunman during a recorded phone call in 2014 about a plan to kill former MP Joshua Freeman. The plot has not been realized.

Wilkins is charged with two counts of obstructing justice for his failure to arrest the unnamed person or to report the threat of Freeman's life, and would also have given this man advice on the way of getting out of the deal with the murder.

Wilkins was sheriff of the small county of North Carolina North, where the largest city has about 8,400 inhabitants, since 2009 and was re-elected in 2018. Wake District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, who had laid the charges , told News & Observe that Wilkins is still the sheriff.

"Technically," said the prosecutor, "he can continue to serve as he wishes until his sentence is pronounced".

According to the indictment, Wilkins discovered in 2014 that Joshua Freeman claimed to have a sheriff's record using "offensive language", and that the MP was considering publicly disclosing the record and handing it over. to the Raleigh authorities. It is unclear what Wilkins could have said on this alleged tape or what happened to the recording.

Prosecutors said, during the August 2014 phone call, that Wilkins' "personal animosity" toward Joshua Freeman led him to accept the plan to kill the MP. The recorded appeal makes it clear that the sheriff had no intention of protecting Freeman or intervening, according to the indictment.

During the call, the sheriff informed the unidentified man that Wilkins knew, that "if you must take care of something, take care of something," according to the act of 39; accusation.

The man gave Wilkins an accurate indication of when and where he planned to kill Joshua Freeman, and described the firearm he was planning to use during the shooting, says the officer. 39, indictment.

Wilkins then "advised the person on how to commit the murder so as to avoid any identification," says the indictment.

He had two important tips to give the future armed man. First of all, do not let the police find the murder weapon. "You do not have the weapon, you have nothing to keep going," Wilkins would have said.

And second, do not talk. "The only way to discover these murders, is to talk," Wilkins said. "You can not tell anyone, nothing at all."

According to the indictment, Wilkins assured the man that he would not disclose anything to the authorities about the fact that he would have known of the conspiracy.

The indictment describes the threat of the person as "credible".

Wilkins "has not made reasonable and professional efforts to help prevent the damage to the victim Joshua Freeman, including by not immediately warning Joshua Freeman of the credible threat (…) or not not proceeding with the arrest of this individual, "says the indictment. Wilkins "did not perform his duties properly because of his personal animosity towards Joshua Freeman, who [Wilkins] was informed of his intention to publicly disclose to the authorities an alleged audio recording of the defendant in racist language ".

Wilkins did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Monday night.

Wilkins' indictment in Granville County comes after a 10-month investigation by the FBI and the NB Bureau of Investigation, although the authorities have been aware of the phone call since 2014, according to a press release from Lorrin Freeman.

The Wake County Attorney resumed the investigation in 2018 after Granville District Attorney Mike Waters revealed a conflict of interest in the case, according to the press release. Waters may also be a witness in the case because he represented Joshua Freeman in his private practice in 2014. At that time, Waters had obtained a copy of the Wilkins recording that allegedly encouraged the murder of Freeman. Waters contacted the FBI and handed him the registration in August 2014, he wrote in a letter to the Wake County Attorney.

In January 2017, Waters reported meeting with the leaders of the State Investigation Bureau and also provided them with the registration. As nothing seemed to be happening, he forwarded the recording to another officer in October 2018 and also wrote to Lorrin Freeman to ask him to take over and advise the government agency on the matter. opportunity to open an investigation because of his conflict. Freeman agreed.

"I have reviewed this recording," Lorrin Freeman wrote to SBI agents, asking for help. "It contains a conversation between two individuals, one of whom appears to be the sheriff of Granville County, about a former deputy sheriff and leads to a discussion about the perpetration of a homicide."

Wilkins appeared before a magistrate in Granville County on Monday and was released on bail of $ 20,000.

Wilkins' office is also under investigation for its accounting practices and its drug enforcement unit, according to the County Attorney General Wake. Joshua Freeman worked at the sheriff's office as a K-9 drug interdiction officer between 2011 and 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile, though it's not clear when he left the sheriff's office.

Following Wilkins' indictment, the Granville Council of Commissioners convened an emergency meeting on Tuesday morning, CBS17 reported.