Another commander quits because of Sheriff "Not My Fault" McFadden (08-19-2025--Hour1)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to dpeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. And I regret to inform you we have lost another one, another chief deputy at the Meckelberg County Sheriff's Office. I will get to that first. Want to welcome to the show as we do every Tuesday at noon. Andrew Dunn. He is a contributing columnist over at the Charlotte Observer. He also runs the website Longleaf Politics longleafpol dot com. Andrew, how are you, sir? I'm well, Thanks for having me, thanks. For joining us. As always I appreciate it. So I guess by coincidence you had a piece about the Mecklelimberg County jail. But also Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden as I refer to him, because nothing is ever his fault. No matter what goes wrong at the jail, it's never his fault. And so you had a piece. Coincidentally, I am assuming you did not know that he was about to have another one of his deputies, his second in command, quit on him and write a scathing resignation letter. No, no, I had no special insight. So but you also had a piece at Long Leaved Politics that kind of dovetails into your write up at the Observer about the Meclimberg jail. And so you start off with the question do we have a jail or a wellness retreat? And I kind of feel like it's more like a college campus student union kind of a vibe, or maybe like a Silicon Valley startup that you know, they let you bring your dog to the campus and he got a foosball table in the break room. I got. I get the idea, that's the vibe he's going for. So you write about the DJ booth and you wrote about the opening up of the jail for dinners or something to the public, which I had not heard of. So why did you decide to look at the jail and what are these I mean, I've talked about the DJ booth I had, Like I said, I did not know anything about the dinner service that they were apparently running. What's that about. Yeah, So, you know, the Mecklunberg County Jail has really had a rough stretch over the last couple of years. You know, last year there was a huge spike in inmate deaths, and then over the past year there's been a lot of high level resignations and people talking about a negative work environment. A lot of that has been managerial, but somebody who worked at the jail did get stabs while on the job by a coworker not too long ago. At the intake center at intake. Yeah, like how do you get a knife into intake? Should not be able to anyway. So, you know, I've been reading all these all this bad news about the jail, and so it piqued my interest when I saw the DJ booth. You know, there there's a new recording studio for inmates at the jail, and the dinners is really interesting. So they had this ticketed event. You paid eighty dollars anybody in the public and you went in and sat alongside the inmates for a five course meal of Thomas Ai inspired items. So we're talking about, you know, food with like cheeto crumbled up cheetos on top of it. I don't know, it was pretty wild. Because that's what I would like to do. I'd like to spend eighty dollars on prison food, our jail food. Yeah. Yeah, that's well elevated prison food. Right. If you put the word elevated in front of it, it makes everything good. Yeah, and you put a bunch of words like on the menu that nobody knows but they're too embarrassed to ask what they mean that kind of elevated as well. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I wanted to write about this because well, my first reaction was, you know, I call me old fashioned, but you know, isn't jail supposed to be punishment to some extent? But then as I thought more deeply about it, I realized, you know, the jail, Mechluber County Jail, has no business kind of opening things up when there's still all these problems that need to be sorted out. I mean, now is the time to lock things down, you know, to not create any more avenues where you know, illegal drugs can get into the jail. I mean that's been a huge factor in the in the inmate death. You know, let's. Focus on the basics before we start even considering some of these fancier things, right. Well, and that's one of the things that well, I guess we could call him now DJ not my fault, McFadden. There's one of the things that that he blamed was fentanyl for all of the deaths, because it's never his fault of course, right, So it was all of the fentanyl depths and he can't control what people come in if they've got it in their system or something. Although the guy who just died in the jail like a week or so ago, he was in his like he was there for a long time. He was there for like two years, I want to say, and he was a younger guy. I think he was in his thirties. So, like, I'm not sure what all went down. We haven't I haven't seen any update as to how he died. But that kind of sounds like it might be drug related. So it seems pretty obvious that drugs are getting into the jail. And yeah, like to your point, if you're going to open up the doors to a public, ticketed event, who's to say that bad actors aren't going to take advantage of this to smuggle drugs into the jail. Right exactly. I haven't heard any update either on the most recent death. And I'm not saying that something the farious happened. You know, people used a dinner to smuggle things in. But I mean, at least there's a risk there. Sure, Yeah, I mean that's the I mean, that's the whole point of you know, running a secure operation facility like this is you have to think in those types of terms because they're always going to be trying to get illicit material and substances into the jail. Of course, they are also the amount of deaths if I recall correctly mcfatt since he's been in office, I want to say, now the total death toll in the jails among don't call them inmates, residents as he likes to call it, right, yeah, residents, Yes, eighteen. I think he's it's like he's averaging about three a year. And he points out that, you know, he's taking credit for there not being a jail death I think in the last year or something like that. But but now we just had another one, so I guess that streak is over. But this is interesting because it's something I always talk about with local government especially, but all government, which is you have first priorities. You talk about first principles in your piece at Long Leave Politics, which really like when governments start doing more and more things, they lose sight of the first order priority right like to and in my view, government is there to provide security so we can all engage in free enterprise and commerce and we can have a high trust society with the expectation that we will be secure and if somebody does do something to us, there will be justice meted out. And it seems like McFadden has kind of lost sight of that sort of first principle. I think that's fair to say. You know, I got a statement from Sheriff McFadden. I didn't actually get to talk to him on the phone, but he said, you know, all these programs are through some national Sheriff's Association best practices research supported and I don't doubt that he could pull some studies to say that it's good or not, or say that it's good. But I have a lot of skepticism inherently and any of those you know, nationwide advocacy organizations. But you're right, the heart of the matter is what is jail four actually? And I don't think that there's too much of that question going around Mecklenberg County jail today. I mean, when I think of what a jail is for, is you know, you're going to keep bad guys in, you're going to keep bad stuff out, and you're gonna keep people until they go face justice. I mean, that's all you have to do. Yeah. In your piece at The Observer, you say policy swings like a pendulum. After years of tough on crime, the impulse in liberal cities like Charlotte now is to soften every edge. You say, we don't need to swing back to cruelty, but we do need to stop confusing generosity with clarity. So I read that and I thought, well, what is the incentive for our local leaders to actually do that? I Mean, my view on this is is this suicidal empathy animates so much of the political left now that like, I don't know if there is any incentive for them to do anything different. No, you're right, I mean I think it would require things to truly get to an overwhelming crisis point, you know, but nationally, the tide does seem to be turning some. I mean, even Gavin Newsom is running to the center, the governor California, on some of these law and order issues. I think the election of Donald Trump in twenty twenty four was a major sign that people are getting tired of some of this, as you put it, the suicidal empathy. Yeah. Well, it's a choice. I've been saying, especially on the criminal justice front, this is all a choice, and it doesn't stop until voters say stop so and maybe we are approaching that point. We shall see. Andrew always going to talk with you, sir, Thanks so much for your time, appreciate it. Thank you. All right. That's Andrew Dunn. He is a contributing columnist over at the Charlotte Observer, also the purveyor of long Leaf Politics long leafpol dot com. Highly recommend it. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why, Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. So we made it about Gosh. I guess it was maybe three weeks. I think it's been three weeks since we've had some embarrassment of a scandalous story out of Charlotte government. And it's not the city Council again, although we do have a sitting member running for reelection who is under federal indictment, so that's kind of an ongoing semi scandalous story. You know or scandalous story. Still it's like every single day is probably like just re up that because it's a scandal. But no, it's another. It's another story out of the Mecklenbergy Sheriff's office. Another number two has been really or no has has quit. He quit. He did not get fired. He quit. This is Chief Deputy Chris Allen, and he resigned yesterday morning. And I have his resignation letter. It is you got to hear the whole thing. And if it sounds familiar, it's because Chris Allen replaced Kevin Canty as the second in command after Canty quit less than a year ago, and he wrote a resignation letter that sounds like this one. I don't know what else democrats need to hear, except now you've got and this isn't like I have I brought with me. Here's my whole stack of McFadden related buffoonery. Okay, and I've got all of the Kevin Canty stuff. Remember Aileen Maddox remember her. She was a former employee. She worked in the front office among the command staff, and she quit she observed a change in McFadden's behavior. This was from when she spoke on the Vince Cochley Show back in November. She tried to satisfy his demands, but he could never articulate what he wanted. Well, that's because his command staff left him so flustrated. He could not articulate what it was that he wanted. His approach was, maybe if you don't know what to do to make improvements, then you shouldn't be in your position. But the staff was looking for a vision, and his response was, you're not ready for my vision. Tell you what you Just do something and I'll let you know if that comports with my vision. Well, why don't you just tell me what your vision is? No? No, No, you can't handle my vision. I'm I'm pretty sure I could handle that. Yeah, just how about just give it a test and we'll see, like maybe just a part of the vision, like do like one eye open or something. Just give me half the vision and we'll see if I can follow along. So here's the letter from again Chris Allen, chief Deputy now former. I would like this letter to serve as my official letter of resignation from the position of Chief Deputy of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office after being under your leadership for the last year, I have come to the realization that your values and morals do not align with mine. Coming in hot, he is, coming in hot, he goes on. It troubles me to have to write this letter because when I first met you, I had the utmost respect for you as the sheriff of the largest sheriff's office in North Carolina. Okay, hang on all right now, How is that possible You got the job because Kevin Canty quit and wrote the wrote that resignation letter that went public, did interviews, We had him on the program. We had him in studio for an hour talking about his tenure there, Like this stuff could not have been unknown, like at some point early on, it's it's understandable, like you you know, you don't know anything about McFadden's style or anything. But by this point, like you've got the Charlotte Observer editorial board saying McFadden is not fit for the office. So I don't know. I don't know if you can say that you were completely blinded to you know, all of these stories, Sheriff McFadden. He says, you painted a picture of a great agency where the employees were happy and just needed a little guidance. I was excited for an opportunity to make a difference and further my career. Unfortunately, shortly after coming aboard, I realized that the picture you painted was not true and quite the opposite. During my tenure at this agency, I have endured constant backstabbing, lies, disrespect, and false narratives, all orchestrated by you in an attempt to assassinate my character. The fact that you willingly coerced other staff members to malign me in many ways greatly contributed to my inability to no longer trust you toxic guys. This sheriff is toxic. He is a raging narcissist. I have been saying this now for several years. It is obvious he does not belong in any leadership post. He is unfit to be the sheriff. There are ways to remove him. I will go over them. I go over them every time he's back in the news for this kind of stuff. The letter continues. It saddens me to say that I have been in law enforcement for over twenty years, and this last year that I have served under your leadership has been the worst year of my entire law enforcement career. I have endured this hostile work environment created by you, suffering both mentally and physically due to your abusive and narcissistic behaviors for as long as I possibly can. You openly promote mental health and advocate for those in the community who may be suffering, but you are the root cause of many who suffer directly under your leadership as a law enforcement Well, that's darvo, folks, that's darvo. And I've gone over these examples for years. This is how narcissists engage with people is through DARVO. It's an acronym, and the RVO is reverse victim and defender. There's deny anger, reverse victim, and offender. So these are his behaviors. It's textbook stuff. And when he goes out to the public and he does this projection of like I care more, I'm this great guy, look at all this stuff I'm doing, because that's how he views people. It's people are simply there in order to help him achieve whatever it is that he wants to do. And this is why, by the way, people like him are in politics, it's not really even a matter of like policies or anything or ideology. It's just there. They're like, it's parasitic. They just they want the accolades, They want the people to to help them do whatever it is that they want to do. Usually it's a mass power, their manipulative And that's the way he runs his shop. Right the anger in Darvo, right where he starts using racial slurs against his staff and then blames them for his use of the slurs. That's the reverse victim offender. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. 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Not my fault McFadden's ranks, John says, chief deputies are dropping faster at the Mecklenburg Sheriff's office than inmates. That's oh my goodness, that's too soon. Sorry, residents, They're not inmates, they are residents. I'm looking at the text line here, sorry, Seth, says Pete. I hope his resignation letter has half of the page with McFadden's picture on it. It does not, by the way, every statement that goes out from the Sheriff's office that's about something bad, no picture of McFadden. Whenever it's something that he wants to tout, then it's got the top third of the press release with his face. So yeah, I don't know why they do that. I do know why they do that. He's a narcissist. Okay, this is an anonymous person. I work for a police department directly under a chief and the guy before me left and I did not believe the things he was saying until I got into the position, and then I left a few years later myself for the same reasons. Right, And this is what the previous number two chief Deputy, Kevin Canty said, was that he had heard some of the stories about McFadden and his management style, if you will, but that he thought they were exaggerations, disgruntled employees, that kind of thing. But at this point, I don't know how anybody can walk into any position in McFadden's office and not be aware that it is a toxic environment. Now, maybe you go in thinking you can navigate that, or maybe you go in thinking that you can help improve it or something like you can go in and make a difference. That's totally fair. But I don't think you can go in and claim that you are oblivious to this stuff or that everybody is exaggerating like this. I don't even know. I think it's like half a dozen of these people, maybe more, of his command staff have quit, not to mention the firings that he did when he first took over. Back to the resignation letter from Chris Allen. As a law enforcement professional, I have never had to fight to do what is right until I came to this agency as a law enforcement supervisor. I have never been asked to target employees under my supervision until I worked under your leadership. My refusal to compromise my character, morals, and integrity to comply with your demands caused me to suffer an onslaught of harassment, hostility, and constant bullying from you. Sheriff McFadden, this is direct fire right here, like this is Kevin Canty turned up to eleven. I have witnessed you use the Mecklenberg County Sheriff's Office staff for your own personal gain to garner the port of the community demanding staff presence at many events to promote your own agenda while taking them away from the little family time that they have. Your mismanagement of Sheriff's office and county resources would be considered less than ethical or professional in any organization, and I will no longer be associated with that type of dysfunction, Sheriff McFadden. If the community could actually see who you really are when there are no cameras and audience for you to entertain, they would see the true narcissist that you are. I totally agree with former Chief Deputy Kevin Canty when he stated that this agency has a culture that fosters a toxic and abusive environment created by you. Let me jump over and get Steve on the program. Hello Steve, Welcome to the program. How you doing hey. I think that after hearing the resignation letter with the words hostile in a lot, he might want to go ahead and expand on that a little bit and threaten the city like our old police chief did. And may you can pick up a couple three thousand or four hundred thousand dollars on the way out. That's a great idea, right right. We didn't got nothing you ain't got nothing to lose. Right, just threaten the lawsuit. Maybe threaten the city too. The city council may, I mean they may cut you a check. Who knows, I mean, I know it's not a city department or anything, but like they just the threat of a lawsuit very well might make them empty our pockets. Yeah, and the only thing he wouldn't have to wait on was just, you know, give him enough time to get behind closed doors and then it'll happen. That's right. Well he missed one. Well, they had a zoning meeting last night, the city council did so. I don't know if they did a closed session, but yeah, next Monday or the week after that, they could put a closed session in there. Yes, threaten a lawsuit, maybe get the county commissioners to pay out too. Yeah, it's a good money making opportunity. Steve, great point. I appreciate the call man. This is from Bob. I just looked up Gary McFadden on the internet and he has described as a TV personality, which is pretty revealing of his aspirations. Yeah, he did a show I don't remember, do you remember what network it was on? It was called I Am Homicide. That was the name of the program, and not really sure, but the rumors were that part of the problem, that part of well, some of the problems that he encountered at the end of his tenure with CMPD as a homicide detective, because that's where they got the name of the show from. Is that that's what people in the neighborhood would call him when he when he rolled up on the scene, they would say, oh, here comes homicide, and so he said, I am homicide. I am homicide. And so anyway, he in doing the show, you know, he would go over his old cases and he would talk about the cases, and there were rumors and delegations that he may have taken a bunch of the files and stuff in order to use this for the TV show. It was on. Okay, it was on the ID network Investigation Discovery. Was that the old Discovery channel. Maybe why okay, hang on a second. The text line is blowing up and so it keeps scrolling past where I was, Oh, here we go one of my favorites. Hi, Pete, sorry to say, but you are starting to sound unhinged. Regarding Sheriff McFadden. The staff resignations are likely just disgruntled employees, all hearsay and no evidence. Gary, is this you? Are you texting me? Gary? Because the sheriff supporters are happy with his job performance, he'll get re elected and get sworn in for an other term. No way a North Carolina judge is going to remove and elected official. Why do the people keep electing him? Well, the last time around, he cleared the Democrat primary. There were multiple challengers, they split up the vote, and he did actually, if I recall correctly, he did get over the fifty percent mark in the Democrat primary. So yeah, because he doesn't have to cater to Republicans, he just has to cater to fifty percent plus one of the Democrat voting base. And the two eighty seven G program being scrapped was what he promised. His refusal to fully cooperate with Ice, that's what got him elected. And so he's going to ride that horse until it's dead. I am homicide was on Investigation Discovery. Thank you. This chief deputy needs to find the same attorney that Chief Johnny Jennings had. Maybe he'll get a payoff from somebody. That's right, Yeah, I mean it's very it's a very good suggestion. See like, look at us, look at us trying to help. Well, we're trying to help, Chris Allen. Yeah, I mean to our own detriment. It's going to be our tax dollars. But all right, you hear me talk a lot about incentives, right, Well, let's talk about incentive trips, the kind that companies offer employees to fire them up and reward their teams. If you own a business or you work somewhere that offers these incentive trips, first off, good for you. But also there is a custom app that's a game changer for these trips. It's called Incentive trip Kit. Private group messaging, shared photos, you're itinerary, travel details, all built into a single, easy to use app. There's even a traveler locator so Carl from Accounting doesn't get left behind. The best part about Incentive trip Kit it's totally private, no email captures, no sign ups, no cringe ads. It's simple, clean and secure, and when the trip is over, Instanentive trip Kit turns those highlights into a professional storytelling video. So think about it. When you launch next year's incentive trip campaign, that video becomes your greatest motivator. Talk about a return on investment right, you got to check out Incentive trip Kit for your business visit Incentive tripkit dot com because great trips deserve even better returns. Let me read the last two paragraphs of the resignation letter from Chief Deputy Christopher Allen, who quit yesterday officially from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, the second chief deputy to quit and open up with both barrels on McFadden, describing the same thing, the same toxic culture and the same narcissism that like we've been going over for several years. Now. Here's how he concludes in our last meeting. This is to McFadden. In our last meeting, you doubled down on your suggestion that quote I fear you. In other words, McFadden is saying that allan fears McFadden or something. Your suggestion that I fear you, that comment, which you have made on several occasions, could not be further from any truth. I fear no one but God. However, I was raised to always have respect for my elders. You have dangled this position over my head from the first day I arrived at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's office, and now for the last time. There is no amount of money worth the mental and verbal abuse that you inflict upon your executive and command staff daily. I appreciate those who have stood by me during this tumultuous journey. I would not have made it to this one year mark had it not been for the encouragement and support from Chief Youngblood and Chief Fields. Oh my goodness, they're in trouble. Now they're going to get it. I will continue to pray for the Mecklemburg County Sheriff's Office. Regards, best regards, Chris, Welcome to the program. Hello Chris. Yeah, it's good to talk to you. Pete. The last time I talked to you probably was like before the New Year. I'm sorry, I'm like a bad Pete. Nick, right, Ah, that's all right. I do what. I will say this. I made it up to you because I decided to quit stealing from you and I jumped on Patreon. Patreon is that place where they always ask for money and I'm like, well, let me look at it, and I pay you five dollars a month now for that. And it's awesome because now I get to tell everybody. I get to tell everybody that I pay for my information now, So that's kind of what I mean by. That, no more free loading. I like it. There you go. Exactly, So let's go. Let's come back in the way back in machine. I don't know your history about how long you were here, but about twenty five years ago we had the state rep. He was an optometrist. I want to say. His last name was black, Jim Black. He was Jim Okay, Yeah, and he was involved with that scandal, right, and I got in troubles several scandals. Yeah, yeah, went to federal prison some time or something. So I bree So. So the one thing that he had going on in the state was he he proposed to bill, got it passed through, which made him a lot of money, and had to do with requiring like all the five year olds or four year olds before they go to school to get an eye exam. Done so. But but in relation to all his skin and I want to tie this to mcpadden and kind of picking your brain on that. And I know Charlotte, Charlotte's kind of different in in our makeup now. But back then he got re elected. Back then he did, and then he got charged. But but but it was known before then that he was having issue. Correct. Yes, uh, Chris, I got I'm up against the I'm up against the heartbreak. I'm glad you called. I appreciated. Yeah he be. He beat a guy named Hal Jordan, and Jordan said that apparently people in that district would prefer a felon over a Republican. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.