Sheriff "Not My Fault" McFadden sent NC a poorly-written letter about re-opening the juvenile jail (11-11-2025--Hour2)

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 the links, become a patron, go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. So our sheriff. He wrote the state a letter, a poorly written one, but a letter was written and sent to the state to Deputy Secretary William L. Lassiter from the desk of Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden. I mean, he didn't use the nickname, but we all know the nickname. So here's from the Charlotte Observer story. Meckelberg County Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden asked the state's Department of Public Safety to meet with him in a public forum to discuss how they can quote collectively move towards reopening the county's former juvenile detention facility known as Jail North. McFadden. He sent them a letter to DPS Deputy Secretary William Lassiter. This was sent on Halloween. Woo. The Charlotte Observer had just reported that Lassiter and we covered this with the Charlotte Observer story. I brought that to you, like what two weeks ago when the Observer did the story that Lassiter said that he was hoping that Jail North would reopen one day. In mostly private conversations, many in the criminal justice system have been trying to find a way to reopen it for years. So there are a lot of as I call them Weasley words in that sentence. That's not a I'm not slag in the reporter Ryan Orley on this, but like this is the way reporters write stuff that it just it. They are their shorthand. For like I heard somebody say this thing or this is a rumor. Like in mostly private conversations, many in the criminal justice system like, well, how many a lot a critical mass? No, like is it just two people? Is that many? How many is many? You know, it's just it's it's vague, it's obtuse. So anyway, when I was a reporter, I just steer it away from that sort of thing. It's it's like some people say, well, who are some people, right, people that don't want to go on the record and just trying to, you know, stir the pot. So and I'm not saying that that's happening here. That's just always the These are always the questions I have because I'm always trying to discern motive from people why they're talking to the media about a particular story while refusing to give their name, right, So I have to know, like, what is their incentive in discussing this stuff. Are they motivated by just like an attempt to you know, blow the whistle on something, or are they motivated by some other thing? What's their incentive? Anyway back to the story. Others, including a collection of advocacy groups known as Children's Alliance, as well as District Attorney Spencer Merriweather, also believe something important was lost when McFadden closed the facility in twenty twenty two. So let me go to the letter I shall give you. Oh, let me see here, because I have two sound bites of not my fault McFadden because remember a week ago, four days ago, actually he appeared on Breaking with Brett Jensen here on WBT at six o'clock. He was in studio for the whole hour, and I pulled these soundbites, but I never got to them because I just ran my mouth on all sorts of other things that he had said, so I never got to the jail North quotes. So I do have two sound bites from his interview with Brett. You know, let me do the letter first. Let's do the letter, Dear Billy, William L. Lasseter. But he put Billy in parentheses. I don't know why you would do that, Like, if you're going to use the informal Billy, if that's what you know him as, just say Billy, don't put it in parentheses, and then his full name. But whatever, it doesn't matter. I know I may be a little overly critic. There will be other opportunities for me throughout this letter. He begins, thusly, I am writing to request a public forum to address the ongoing issues and confusion surrounding the possibility reopening of the Mecklenberg County Juvenile Detention Center. Okay, so you missed a word. There should have been the possibility of reopening. So there's your first problem. The recent back and forth conversations, as all conversations are back and forth. Otherwise it's just a monologue. But maybe I'm being too picky there. The recent back and forth conversations and conflicting media reports have created a misleading picture of why this facility remains closed. This has caused concern among community members, families, stakeholder myself. Dude, would you say this has caused concern among myself? Would you say myself? You would not. It's just me and me. It's caused confusion for me anyway. And also, stakeholders should be plural, but mainly the staff here at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff Office that deserve a transparent and fact based conversation that may result in a final decision, at least for the moment. It is he God one, two, three, four typos in one sentence. And I'm not even getting into the lack of commas here. Okay, it's just like run on sentence after run on sentence. I don't know who's writing this letter, but good lord, it should be in a final decision. At least there should be a t It's not at least that's like renting, you know. This forum should provide the public and all stakeholders with clarity on Colan and then he has a list of bullet points. The true reasons behind the facilities closure and the barriers we face to reopening. The staffing shortages and recruitment challenges currently impacting operations. The specific resource and financial needs necessary to reopen safely and effectively. The role of Mecklenberg County in potential financial or operational support. A clear plan and timeline to move forward. Okay, So those were the bullet points. There were five of them. So the Forum should provide the public and all stakeholders with clarity on those five things. It goes on to say the discussion would be limited to two hours to allow for a focused and productive conversation. You put it on a clock. That's how you stay focused, right, Okay. Our goal is simple to bring clarity. It should be simply let me make a note there. Our goal is simply to bring clarity, accountability, and shared understanding to this issue so that we can collectively move toward reopening the facility responsibly. My office is prepared to assist with coordination and logistics if all parties are willing to provide the funding and true resources that it would take to reopen this facility. I also believe that we need to discuss all options openly, but most of all, we must clarify to the public, stakeholders and critics, the housing of juveniles not capitalized is a DJJ state mandated issue and not a mandate nor statutorily mandated requirement for the sheriff's office. A loss should be Also, the ball is not in my court because the court belongs to DJJ, but our team willing to help bring the win to our juveniles should not be capitalized, and mainly those here in Mecklinberg County. He wants a show trial, That's what he wants. He wants to deflect the blame away from him and onto the state. Because again, his name not my fault. McFadden tells you all you need to know about this issue. This is not his fault. None of this is his fault. The Meckliberg County Sheriff is willing to he is referring to himself in the third person. The Mecklinberg County Sheriff is willing to assist, but not carry the full burden alone by recruiting, hiring, and training the necessary staff to reopen the juvenile detention center. Please let me know your availability for these proposed dates at your earliest convenience, and he's wanting the forum to take place either this week or next week, so a public forum. By law, according to the Charlotte Observer, juvenile jails are a state responsibility, but Lasseter has argued the Mecklinberg County benefited from Jail North. It's now been sitting empty basically since November twenty twenty two. He said he has tried to buy it, lease it, or get McFadden to reopen it in some capacity, but nothing has budged the sheriff. See the sheriff is focusing only on the last of those three options. McFadden keeps pointing to like, Oh, I you know, I'll do it, but you know I got to have all of the money to do it. You got to give me the true resources instead of the fake resource. I need the true resources, and I need all the funding, and I need all the support. What are you going to do for me? What are you going to give to me? That's all he's focused on in all of this because, according to Lasseter, and this was in the Charlotte Observer story from like two weeks ago, the state has offered to buy it, so you don't like, just just sell it. Then if you don't want to run it, you don't want to do it, just sell it to the state. You want to let the state operate out of it and staff up, then let them lease it and let them worry about staffing it. But he cites the staffing issues like, well, you know, the state's going to have a problem staffing it just like we do. But that's their responsibility. Then that's on them. You know, stories are powerful. 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They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. That's so it's the Coast Guard. Happy Veterans Day to all veterans. Thank you for your service. Thank you to your families as well. Let me jump over to the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. This is from John. Yes, doesn't the property like Jail North fall under the control of the county not just the sheriff. I thought the county commissioners have final say over the use of the property. Well, yes, that was one of the reasons why they closed. It was because they had such staffing shortages and at the Central Jail, so they closed Jail North to move all those people to the Central jail during COVID. That was the recommendation from Dina Diorio, then county manager. So yes, I would think the county commissioners have a role to play. Maybe they're one of the stakeholders not mentioned specifically in the poorly written letter to the state by the sheriff. By the way, yeah, this is from Corey, who says I'm not a big I'm not big on AI writing reports for people, but clearly this McFadden letter is an example of where it would have been appropriate. Yes, I think so. So, like, what are the possibilities on this poorly written letter? He wrote it, right, that's number one. He could have written it. Number two, somebody else could have written it. But then that would mean like you would have you know, did he then proofread it or not? There's a secondary decision there, So did somebody else write it? If so, did he proofread this? That's almost worse than if he did not proofread it, although that's bad too, which is also bad if he wrote it, or maybe third option, he dictated it to somebody else, in which case, then did he proofread it afterwards? Did they proofread it? Did anybody proofread it? Or no? 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He appeared on Breaking with Brett Jensen on I think the seventh, the sixth or the seventh, so like five for four or five days ago, and you can go get that at the WBT dot com podcast app or at the at the website, and he did. They talked a little bit about a lot of things, but they talked about the Jail North, the juvenile detention center that has been closed down. So here is here's the first thing that McFadden had to say about that. Well, everyone, let me as they say a level set. That's a new word, so let me not everyone believes that it is the Mecklenburg County sheriff responsibility for the juvenile detention center to be reopened. Okay, no, we don't actually not everybody believes that. I know, that's a convenient framing for you because it allows you to make this argument that it is not your fault. Right, So I know that's convenient framing. But not everybody believes that the state can play a role. And that's why the Observer did this story when the state said, hey, can we buy the facility from you? But McFadden is saying no. Apparently, we are not statutorily mandated to run the detention center, which means that it is up to the Department of Juvenile Justice to find bed space for these jiles. We just so happened to agree with them. We just so happened wanted to work with them back in twenty nineteen, and we were happy to take on that responsibility. Now let me fast forward quickly. We are still happy to take on that responsibility. But you have to bring more to the table than you're bringing. And so why the Juvenile Detention Center is closed. Well back when everyone was resigning from their job with the Great Resignation? Was that when you got elected? Is that what happened? It was the Great Resignation? Or was that after that was a response to the Black Lives Matter fiery but mostly peaceful riots. Is that what happened when everybody started quiting, was it COVID? Is that everything was COVID right again, all of these things not his fault. The great resignation, not Gary's fault. He had nothing to do with any of this. The state decided to begin to target us on expections, not expections, inspections is what he meant to say there, I think. Again, not his fault. It's the state that was targeting him under Roy Cooper, under a Democrat governor, Democrat Department of Public Safety, and the state. And he's been claiming this for years that he was unfairly targeted for inspections, not that it had anything to do with like all of the people that were dying in the jail, which he doesn't like people saying, oh, death at the jail. He didn't like people saying that either, because we're supposed to wait for the autopsy to come out before we can report that somebody died at the jail. According to him, that's what he That's what he said. That's what he told Brett. I played that clip the other day. The state wasn't targeting you for inspections because they don't like you. The state is required to inspect your facilities, particularly when somebody dies in your custody, and when there are complaints or reports filed about the way you are supervising. The jail called several people in Raleigh who had no answer for me, and I said, it is unusual in the inspections that we're getting at this particular time. And so when they send these expections to Raleigh about Jail Central, let me get this straight about Jail Central or Downtown, they always shift that to the counter commissioners and you know, the public officials, and then they do a knee jerk reaction of sure, if you've got to do something, you've got to do something. And so this goes on for quite some time, and then it got down to you must do something. So the only way that we could increase the staffing at Jail Central Detention Center Central is to close the juvenile Detention Center. And when we did that, that's when everything started. But that's not when everything started. You had people dying at the Jail Central and the state was saying, you don't have enough personnel for adequate monitoring, right, and so then they're like, okay, well, we got to get more people in here, but nobody wanted to go work for not my fault, macfadden apparently, no, no, no, it's the great resignation. So nobody wanted to work there, and so the county manager recommended the closure, and he recommended the closure of. The juvenile jail facility. Okay, I understand that argument. That does not address you turning down the state's offer to buy the facility, though I'd love to get an answer on that. State of North Carolina, the Apartment of Juvenile Justice is responsible and is mandated to find bedspace throughout the state for the juveniles. And this is a long conversation. So as we know that there were many backdoor conversation, back room conversation and discussion, we decided to ask them which we're going to still find a date to have a public hearing, and we put everything out on the table so we won't look like the bad guys. There it is, so we won't look like the bad guys. So he's got an excuse for everything. Well, I hope somebody at this forum or hearing or whatever the hell he wants to call it, I hope somebody asks him and makes him address it. Why not just sell the building. Then you don't even have to worry about the maintenance and the upkeep and all of that. No capital replacement costs nothing. Just sell the state the building and then let them run a juvenile jail facility. Why not just do that? Nothing is his fault. We don't want to be the bad guy, right, so we are not made out to be the bad guys. 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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. That'd be Veterans Day, also Marine Corps Birthday. Yesterday right the way. Sheriff Gary now my fault. McFadden was on with Brett Jensen last week. They were talking about Jail North, the juvenile jail that was closed down. Here is the question about why not just let the state lease the facility or buy it? And here's why. I mean they can't fulfill the BDS. I mean they can't fulfill the employment Why because Cobaris County Detention Center has a thirty to forty percent vacancy rate, So they can't even fill the vacancy rate in their current buildings, So why should I give them a building that we could We are definitely still using and we're definitely occupying it. That you can't feel that is an inaccurate statement. It's not an inaccurate statement. It's not your problem. It's not your problem. If the state wants to buy it and they say they can try to staff it up, then let them do. So what's the issue here. It's like it's like he doesn't want to incarcerrate juveniles. That's it. It's almost as if, right, why not just sell the building? They can't. They can say they rinted, but can they fill the employment No? Can they fill it with detentionis offices? No? If you could, why do you have thirty to forty percent vacancy rate at a current facility? So what I said about that, close that facility and allow me to hire everyone from that facility. We won't have to vet them out. We don't have. I mean, sure we have to look at them, but we will bring all of them over. So that will save millions. And I've heard a lot. I've never heard a good thing about the situation up in Cabar's counting. There is no good situation about Cabaras County if you want to be accurate about it. Yeah, I've never heard a good thing about that. So we and I want to talk about this, and this is why we will have public hearings forums to talk about it, because we're going to lay everything out on the table. Surely have some people who believe that they can fix it. Sure they can throw around some numbers. Sure that somebody say, well, I'm going to open it, but do you know what it takes to open it. We know what it takes to open it, we know what to how to run it. There you go. He wants control. I want to control this. I'm trying to control all of this stuff and he doesn't want to give it up. I'm going to make the decision. I think you can't handle it. And by the way, this idea, close Cabaris and move everybody down. Cabaris is bigger. Caberis has like fifty percent more beds than jail North does. That's why his idea, as the state called it, is infeasible, or as I call it, stupid. That's a dumb idea. Why would you reduce the number of total beds. Meanwhile, he wants he wants all of those state employees to be transferred under his control, which then of course creates like more problems because of the way he runs his office. With a toxic work environment, You're going to have a bunch of people start quitting there too. This is just it. It boggles the mind, it really does. Let's see here, I thought, John said, why isn't the county? Why is sorry? Why isn't it the county manager's decision or the county commissioner's decision to sell the building? I've never heard of a sheriff having decision making powers over that kind of a disposal of county property. The county provides the building to the sheriff to run the jail as he sees fit, but it's up to the county to provide the building. Likewise, it seems if a building is sitting empty, then the county should be able to decide what to do with it and not the sheriff. That would be correct. So where's the county commissioners? All right? That'll do it for this episode. 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