Whistleblower: NC sheriff is recording meetings (12-18-2024--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 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 thepetekalendershow.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.

[00:00:28] Kevin Canty is the former special agent in charge of the Charlotte Field Office for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. He also worked as a federal probation officer and with CMPD as well. Actually, Charlotte police, I think, predating CMPD before the merger. He has a 32-year, 33-year career in law enforcement. Earlier this year, February, he went to work for Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden as the chief deputy.

[00:00:57] Welcome to the program. Welcome to the studio, Kevin. How are you?

[00:01:00] Doing well, Pete. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on.

[00:01:03] Thank you for coming in. And thank you, by the way, also for doing all of the other interviews that you have been doing and for making the public aware of why you walked from the sheriff's office.

[00:01:19] Because I agree with what you had said in that letter that the public needs to be aware of what's going on.

[00:01:25] So I was hoping to kind of ask you some questions about what's going on.

[00:01:29] But I think we should start sort of at the beginning, which is how did you come to work for Sheriff McFadden?

[00:01:36] Because you had retired as a special agent in charge.

[00:01:39] But you seem like a young guy. I don't know how old you are, but you seem pretty.

[00:01:42] That's like you've already retired. Like, why don't you go hit golf balls?

[00:01:46] Well, thank you. I'm actually in my mid-50s, but I'm deteriorating quickly, so it seems anyway.

[00:01:53] But yes, retired from the SBI, special agent in charge of the Charlotte Field Office, which covered nine counties.

[00:01:59] And so I started my career there in 1992 and left and went to federal probation for five years and then came back in 2002.

[00:02:08] And so I worked all over the state and so loved my career in law enforcement.

[00:02:12] That's what I grew up wanting to do. That's what I went to college, undergraduate degree in, and always knew that's what I wanted to do.

[00:02:17] I wanted to work for my community.

[00:02:19] And so as I approached my retirement, I started considering a lot of options that might be out there.

[00:02:26] And I first met, actually, Gary McFadden back as a rookie Charlotte police officer, and he was a rookie homicide detective at that time.

[00:02:35] And so I would run into him occasionally just as he and I handled our business around the city.

[00:02:41] I worked a lot with CMPD Vice.

[00:02:44] I was primarily a drug agent throughout my career with the SBI.

[00:02:47] And even as an assistant special agent in charge, I supervised people but also continued to work a lot of federal drug investigations, task forces,

[00:02:56] work all over the state and knew a lot of law enforcement agencies, local, state, and federal.

[00:03:01] And so after he was elected sheriff and I became the special agent in charge, of course, the SAC deals with all agency heads in the district.

[00:03:11] And so I dealt with all nine sheriffs, all the DAs, various federal agencies.

[00:03:16] And, of course, when inmates would die in the jail, the SBI would be contacted to conduct the criminal investigation.

[00:03:23] And so we would meet at various functions.

[00:03:27] And as I approached my retirement, I spoke to him somewhat in jest but also wanting to find out what possibilities would be out there.

[00:03:35] What a feeler out.

[00:03:36] Why not?

[00:03:36] Yeah.

[00:03:37] What positions he might have.

[00:03:39] And so he and I actually met before I retired.

[00:03:42] He mentioned the possibility of a chief of staff position, something he didn't have at that time, and told me to consider it.

[00:03:49] And so I did a lot of research, various chiefs of staffs from all the way to the presidential chief of staff.

[00:03:56] And, of course, the role is undefined.

[00:03:58] It really depends on what that person wants you to do.

[00:04:01] And so I'll never forget.

[00:04:04] It was one Sunday morning.

[00:04:05] I was watching.

[00:04:06] It was after Meet the Press, the local Charlotte show.

[00:04:11] But anyway, they had.

[00:04:13] Flashpoint?

[00:04:14] That's it.

[00:04:14] There you go.

[00:04:14] That's it.

[00:04:15] And so he was on there talking about juvenile crime.

[00:04:18] And I agreed with what he said about the importance of parents being very involved.

[00:04:23] And so I sent him a text saying, hey, I saw you on TV.

[00:04:25] I agree with what you said.

[00:04:27] And he sent me a text saying, hey, I'm going to give you a call in 10 minutes, which he did.

[00:04:30] And he told me he wanted me to consider the position of chief deputy.

[00:04:34] And he told me to contact some chief deputies of local agencies in the metro Charlotte area who I knew just to get a feel for what they did, which I did.

[00:04:44] And, of course, having worked cases all over the state with police departments and sheriff's office, I had a pretty good idea of what a chief deputy does.

[00:04:51] What that role does, yeah.

[00:04:52] Yeah.

[00:04:52] And so I called you up.

[00:04:54] So just to clear up, the chief of staff position was not funded, right, by the county commissioners, which is why you never went into that position.

[00:05:04] Correct.

[00:05:05] All right.

[00:05:05] So you end up now getting the offer, hey, are you interested, chief deputy?

[00:05:09] Yes.

[00:05:10] And so he told me to think about it.

[00:05:13] I called him back, told him that I was ready to meet with him and met with him.

[00:05:19] And he gave me the option of the two positions.

[00:05:21] Now, of course, he didn't have the chief of staff position, so he couldn't really offer me that position.

[00:05:27] But he did.

[00:05:28] Right.

[00:05:28] But he did.

[00:05:30] But I knew that the position of chief deputy was much more aligned with my skill set, having worked cases, having been in management for 18 years with the SBI total.

[00:05:41] And so I accepted that position.

[00:05:43] Okay.

[00:05:43] Were you aware of, I mean, you said you had worked with him in various capacities, seen him out and about.

[00:05:50] I think you said you had voted for him twice.

[00:05:53] You were very excited about his campaign and candidacy.

[00:05:57] So had you not heard any of the.

[00:06:02] The grumblings, the disgruntlement, the the accusations.

[00:06:08] Right.

[00:06:08] Like one of the one of the things I've heard is that this like, for example, the audio recording of him using the racial slur that's been out there for two years or whatever.

[00:06:18] It's been as if that's so like where you had you heard about that.

[00:06:22] Like what was your what was your thought process if you had heard these things?

[00:06:26] So what I'd heard about him.

[00:06:28] So initially, of course, I put the first information I received about him into the political box.

[00:06:39] Right.

[00:06:39] Yeah.

[00:06:39] The issue regarding, you know, the spat with the federal government over ice right over ice.

[00:06:49] And I knew his position on that.

[00:06:52] And of course, at the time, I thought, OK, well, I think this probably for political purposes, him taking this position now, as far as.

[00:07:01] So that's one thing.

[00:07:02] But as far as the way he treated people, when I was the sack of the district, I received a packet one day and it was from the Charlotte chapter of the fraternal order of police, FOP.

[00:07:11] And it contained it contained a lot of allegations, a lot of pictures, allegations of or pictures of detention officers who'd been injured by inmates.

[00:07:21] And there were allegations about him referring to black employees as being on the plantation or having a plantation mindset and him using racially derogatory terms for black and white employees.

[00:07:32] And so it was certainly disconcerting.

[00:07:34] And so what I did is I contacted the assistant director over the field at the time and we talked about it.

[00:07:39] And I thought, surely.

[00:07:42] These had to be exaggerations.

[00:07:43] I thought maybe, you know, he said something to someone that he shouldn't have.

[00:07:49] Maybe these were some disgruntled employees, which, you know, is ironic because there might be some people out there who think that I'm just that as well as these other people who've come forward.

[00:07:58] But he also took over from there was a fight in, you know, for that election.

[00:08:04] He beat Erwin Carmichael.

[00:08:05] And so there were a bunch of Gina Hicks who ran against him.

[00:08:07] Yes.

[00:08:08] And so, like, there was that there was, you know, a bunch of people that I think were you could probably say were loyal to the previous sheriff.

[00:08:15] Right.

[00:08:16] And so that's it.

[00:08:18] I assume that's what you're talking about.

[00:08:20] It's like you can chalk that up to kind of politics.

[00:08:22] Right.

[00:08:22] Right.

[00:08:22] He say she say, you know, no politician is liked by everyone.

[00:08:26] And so but the assistant director over the field and I agree that if these allegations were true, they were more civil and EEOC in nature where there's nothing criminal.

[00:08:35] And, of course, the SBI, in order to conduct an investigation into any public official, has to receive a request from a DA or superior court judge.

[00:08:43] They don't have original jurisdiction in those types of cases.

[00:08:46] The SBI does in like eight or nine areas.

[00:08:48] But that isn't one of them.

[00:08:50] And so I filed it away.

[00:08:53] And again, ultimately, I thought these have to be exaggerations or some of them anyway.

[00:08:58] And I hadn't seen that.

[00:09:00] And so you hadn't.

[00:09:01] So.

[00:09:01] OK, so that was the second part of my question was that you were not aware of like you saw no from eyewitness and your personal interactions with Sheriff McFadden.

[00:09:12] And through all your years where you were you were on the beat and he was a homicide detective, you never had any of these kinds of interactions.

[00:09:20] Never had those interactions.

[00:09:21] You have to understand, too, the SBI receives calls probably at least once a month about allegations about everyone under the sun.

[00:09:29] You know, agency heads, governmental officials, Martians.

[00:09:37] We get those, too.

[00:09:38] The CIA.

[00:09:39] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:09:39] And so and so it's just a routine thing.

[00:09:44] And so and of course, 99.9 percent of the time, there's no evidence to support these allegations.

[00:09:49] Sometimes there is, of course, in the SBI conducts an investigation.

[00:09:51] So I chalked it up to that.

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[00:10:55] Chief Deputy Kevin Canty is in studio with me and he went to work for Sheriff Gary McFadden.

[00:11:03] Full disclosure, not a fan.

[00:11:05] I'm not a fan of Gary McFadden.

[00:11:07] I think I made that pretty clear over the last few years.

[00:11:11] He, Kevin Canty, went to work for him in February.

[00:11:15] You wrote a draft for your resignation.

[00:11:18] That was in June.

[00:11:20] And then you, according to the reports in the interviews you've given you that you would update it like every month or so you would add another week or so you would add the new date on.

[00:11:30] Because you so you knew you were short timer.

[00:11:32] He and you said that you had this confrontation with McFadden.

[00:11:38] You've accused him of bullying people, mismanagement, racism.

[00:11:42] And then you finally submitted the letter to him.

[00:11:45] I guess he asked for your resignation at some point around November.

[00:11:49] You then gave him this letter that you had drafted months prior.

[00:11:52] You then published it to let not just everybody, I guess, in the sheriff's office know, but also the public know that this is what McFadden has been doing and this is how he operates.

[00:12:04] And one of the things that you mentioned in your letter was the chain of command, that he doesn't follow the chain of command.

[00:12:09] I know there's a lot of attention to the racism and his use his use of the word, you know, cracker and the plantation mentality and all that stuff.

[00:12:16] But the chain of command thing strikes me as pretty serious.

[00:12:20] So what did you mean when you said that he doesn't follow the chain of command?

[00:12:24] Give me an example of that.

[00:12:25] So my first agency in law enforcement, of course, was the Charlotte Police Department, very paramilitary and then went to the SBI, although it isn't as paramilitaries.

[00:12:35] Chain of command is very, very important.

[00:12:38] And so even in the general orders, it says that he has an open door policy.

[00:12:48] And. But it requires them to notify their chain of command.

[00:12:51] For instance, if a deputy wants to speak to McFadden, he or she is supposed to speak to their sergeant and then the sergeant notifies the captain cap, notifies the major and then the chief and then eventually McFadden.

[00:13:03] And this isn't something like, oh, hey, how's it going?

[00:13:05] Happy birthday.

[00:13:07] This isn't like hallway conversation.

[00:13:08] This is like I have a complaint or an issue.

[00:13:10] I have a complaint or an issue.

[00:13:11] Right.

[00:13:11] And I remember early on, it was like the second or third week I was reading general orders because I was over internal affairs.

[00:13:17] I was over the majority of the agency.

[00:13:18] And I even asked a major about that part specifically, asking if it has caused problems.

[00:13:25] I was told this person smiled and said, yes, it causes a lot of problems.

[00:13:30] People undermine it constantly.

[00:13:31] And so Gary McFadden didn't want to receive information from me.

[00:13:37] He wanted to receive information from deputies, sergeants, majors and captains.

[00:13:43] In fact, he would he would.

[00:13:44] So I'm told he would call.

[00:13:46] He would often call deputies, detention officers.

[00:13:49] He would make decisions regarding personnel, regarding transfers without consulting with me or the chief of detention about these moves.

[00:13:58] Why is that important?

[00:13:59] Well, it's important because information needs to be vetted.

[00:14:04] It produces chaos because no one knows what's going on.

[00:14:10] And it also allows people.

[00:14:13] It's just normal and natural that people are sometimes going to be unhappy with decisions made by their supervisors.

[00:14:18] But there's a process to find out if the decision made by the supervisor is fair or not.

[00:14:23] And it goes up the chain because, of course, it's certainly possible that a supervisor might do or say something he or she shouldn't say.

[00:14:30] But that needs to be vetted if that allegation is made.

[00:14:32] And so what people would do is their sergeant, for example, would give a directive or make a decision.

[00:14:39] They wouldn't like it.

[00:14:40] They would contact the sheriff.

[00:14:42] They would contact McFadden.

[00:14:43] And I'm told they would just show up at his office sometimes or he would call them or he would verify.

[00:14:50] I would give him information sometimes.

[00:14:52] And then I would be told by some of my direct reports that he then contacted them to verify that the information I gave him was accurate.

[00:14:59] I mentioned off air there was a problem.

[00:15:04] I perceived a problem between some of my direct reports that there were some personal issues, not just professional issues that occurred that were aired during group settings like Comstat executive team meetings.

[00:15:16] And I wanted to bring those people together just to air it out and find out there was something I needed to get involved with and hopefully to resolve it.

[00:15:23] And I told him about it, but I was told by someone in the meeting that he called that person right afterwards to find out what happened.

[00:15:33] And so it certainly showed me that he didn't trust me.

[00:15:35] He then wanted me to write up a summary of what happened after that.

[00:15:40] Now, he started making me, and this is part of the retaliation after he and I had a confrontation back on July 31st, started requiring me to document every time I had a meeting with my people and then send it to him.

[00:15:55] And in a position he did not make on Chief White or Chief of Staff Allen.

[00:15:59] Well, Chief Allen did not supervise anyone.

[00:16:01] So that wasn't an issue.

[00:16:04] I also implemented soon after I came monthly meetings with all of my direct reports, and I thought that was important to find out what they needed, also to do a pulse check, also to circle back and address any issues that we may have addressed the previous month.

[00:16:20] McFadden didn't want me to do that.

[00:16:21] He felt threatened by that for some reason.

[00:16:23] He even told me once that people didn't like it.

[00:16:27] They were complaining about it, which I told him, I said, I find it hard to believe.

[00:16:31] I didn't share this with him, but I don't mind sharing it now.

[00:16:34] There were some people who literally were close to tears when I implemented it because they were just so thankful, and it had never happened before.

[00:16:41] They were thankful that they had an opportunity to sit down and talk.

[00:16:44] Sometimes the meetings would last 30 minutes.

[00:16:47] Sometimes it would last an hour, an hour and a half.

[00:16:50] But they just wanted the opportunity, and they appreciated the opportunity to have some feedback and say so and have a sit down with the chief.

[00:16:56] And then after or during July 31st, he even told me that he didn't want me to meet with my direct reports anymore.

[00:17:07] So he was undermining me.

[00:17:08] He was retaliating against me.

[00:17:11] But the chain of command is very, very important in any organization because you have to have information that's consistent that flows up and flows down.

[00:17:18] But he didn't want that.

[00:17:19] He would often say, quote, unquote, your precious chain of command in a group setting.

[00:17:25] He would say, I realize that you guys believe in your precious chain of command, but you forget at the top of the chain is me.

[00:17:31] He would make these nonsensical comments.

[00:17:35] And he wanted to be involved in every decision that was made.

[00:17:39] And he even said this one time during one of those meetings or a CompStat or executive team meeting that he didn't trust any of us.

[00:17:45] He didn't trust people there.

[00:17:46] And that was obvious.

[00:17:46] Of course, he's a micromanager and micromanagers are micromanagers because they don't trust people.

[00:17:51] And so that's why when he makes these claims about not knowing what was going on, everyone there knows it's nonsense.

[00:17:59] Well, yeah.

[00:18:00] If he's calling every deputy that is involved in any kind of meeting to verify what was said, he absolutely would know what's going on.

[00:18:07] Kevin Canty is with me.

[00:18:09] All right.

[00:18:09] Hey, real quick.

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[00:18:39] Kevin Canty is in studio with me as the former chief deputy at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office.

[00:18:45] He submitted his resignation about a month or so ago, accusing the sheriff of bullying, racism, mismanagement, as I call it, maladministration.

[00:18:58] I call it because that's in this that's in the North Carolina general statute.

[00:19:03] And so.

[00:19:05] Why go public in the way that you did with the resignation letter?

[00:19:09] What was the purpose of doing that?

[00:19:12] And is there some ulterior motive like you're going to run for sheriff?

[00:19:18] This is I've heard like the insinuation has been from McFadden and surrogates that this is all part of your plan to to run against him for sheriff.

[00:19:30] Right. So I'm glad that you asked me that, Pete.

[00:19:33] So regarding running for for sheriff, I.

[00:19:36] Had no plans whatsoever to ever work for a sheriff's office, working for the SBI, being around investigations of sheriffs, learning about investigations of sheriffs, I'll be honest.

[00:19:46] I always had a pretty low opinion of sheriffs, not sheriff's offices, but the sheriff's themselves.

[00:19:52] I worked a lot of cases, a lot of drug cases, drug conspiracy cases with detectives, excellent people, excellent investigators.

[00:19:59] But I often saw how sheriffs made some decisions that I thought were based more so on getting votes in the future than what was good for a case.

[00:20:08] It is an elected office, the oldest elected office.

[00:20:10] It is. Yeah.

[00:20:11] And so I I always said that there was no way I would ever work for a sheriff's office unless I was retired.

[00:20:17] I had my retirement. And just in case something like this ever happened, then I could walk away and tell them I wasn't going to have it.

[00:20:24] And so. My motivation for for making this known is essentially as a matter of principle, OK, I watched.

[00:20:38] People in certain positions nationally behave in certain ways, and I have no problem telling you,

[00:20:43] often wonder how people like Mike Pence and all these other people work for Trump continue to stay there and work for him based on the way he behaved.

[00:20:53] And we later find out, of course, from books and people have come forward that they were working very, very hard to try to confront him and try to get him to try to control some of his worst impulses.

[00:21:03] And, of course, you know, Mike Pence, Mike Pence on the day of January 6th, he adhered to the Constitution and the country over party and is a real patriot.

[00:21:12] And I often told people that and I'm a Democrat, I'm a registered Democrat, that if I ever worked for a Democrat who behaved in such a way, there is no way I would continue to work for that person.

[00:21:23] I wouldn't make excuses for that person. And the facts are what they are.

[00:21:27] And so fast forward to this year when I began working for the sheriff's office, I began witnessing these behaviors.

[00:21:33] And so I decided that when I did resign, I wanted the agency to know because I wanted them to know that I had been pushing and fighting,

[00:21:44] and others have too, against Gary McFadden's worst impulses.

[00:21:49] There were things I had tried to implement that some of the staff knew about and they thanked me for it.

[00:21:54] But I wanted them to know, people who can't speak out because they have kids, they have mortgages, they have bills to pay, and they haven't reached retirement,

[00:22:03] that I wanted them to know that I didn't think his behavior was acceptable and it needed to be confronted.

[00:22:10] And ultimately my concern is for the employees who have to deal with that toxic and abusive relationship or environment,

[00:22:19] but also the citizens of Mecklenburg County.

[00:22:21] I'm from Charlotte, grew up here, lived here most of my life.

[00:22:26] And the citizens deserve to know by someone who has seen it and heard it firsthand.

[00:22:32] As far as me having any aspirations to run for sheriff, again, I tell people all the time I'm just a known narc at heart.

[00:22:40] I don't like the attention.

[00:22:42] I'm used to operating anonymously, moving around.

[00:22:46] People don't know who I am.

[00:22:47] And so it was a big adjustment for me to even have my face on the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office website.

[00:22:53] I was uncomfortable doing that.

[00:22:55] And so I have no aspirations to run for office.

[00:22:59] I don't mind telling you that a number of people have reached out to me and made that suggestion.

[00:23:03] But I'm sure they would have.

[00:23:05] People from all walks of life, all stripes.

[00:23:08] But there are people who I've been told are planning to run who I think would be very good candidates,

[00:23:15] all of whom would be much better suited to be sheriff than Gary McFadden.

[00:23:19] And these are people, I think the primary trait that you need is, number one, be a good person.

[00:23:25] Understand organization, process, procedure.

[00:23:27] But more than that, know that you need good people in place.

[00:23:31] No agency head knows, no CEO of any company or organization knows everything about that organization.

[00:23:38] They haven't worked in all areas.

[00:23:39] But the smart managers know that it's important to get people who are smarter than you in certain areas,

[00:23:44] who have experience, and put them in place and let them do their job.

[00:23:48] And also have a diverse group, diversity of opinion, diversity of experience,

[00:23:53] because all that's very, very important and healthy for any organization.

[00:23:56] Yeah, to me, the canary in the coal mine was Gina Hicks.

[00:24:00] You fire Gina Hicks, who's running your jail, and then we're seeing deaths in the jail.

[00:24:06] And it's like, you don't put two and two together on that?

[00:24:10] You can't connect those dots?

[00:24:12] Like, something's not working correctly.

[00:24:14] I'm a former chief deputy in Sheriff Gary McFadden's office for about eight months this year.

[00:24:24] So, Kevin, the sheriff strikes me not just as a—and I'm not a psychiatrist or anything,

[00:24:31] but he strikes me as a sort of raging, narcissistic, malignant sociopath.

[00:24:37] That's just what I view him as.

[00:24:39] He also strikes me as a highly paranoid individual in the way that he operates the agency,

[00:24:46] which I think breeds a lot of the problems that now he complains about.

[00:24:53] So I have heard that he records people.

[00:24:58] I don't know if they are aware of this or not in all circumstances.

[00:25:01] Is that off the mark?

[00:25:04] That's what I've heard.

[00:25:05] I've heard the same thing.

[00:25:06] Excuse me.

[00:25:07] I've been told that by a number of people, that he routinely records his conversations with people, his meetings.

[00:25:14] Is that out of paranoia, do you think?

[00:25:16] Is it out of the insecurity?

[00:25:18] I think it's out of paranoia and insecurities.

[00:25:20] And I think it's also he realizes that you do not develop loyalty to you by mistreating people.

[00:25:29] And I think he probably realizes that he's mistreated so many people that a lot of people have motivation not to trust him and to record him.

[00:25:39] He—I've been told that in most meetings the majority of the people in the room are actually recording.

[00:25:46] And he doesn't like to have email communication.

[00:25:51] He would often talk about—he would often say that we would, quote, unquote, hide behind emails, which, of course, is a nonsensical comment.

[00:25:59] That's the beauty of an email.

[00:26:01] You can't hide behind it.

[00:26:02] It's in black and white.

[00:26:03] It's date stamped and time stamped.

[00:26:04] But he did not want to have email communication.

[00:26:07] He preferred to have face-to-face conversations.

[00:26:09] That way he could deny that something was said.

[00:26:13] That was actually said.

[00:26:15] But, again, I think that people are recording him, and he knows that.

[00:26:19] And so I was recently told that he has implemented recordings of all executive team meetings and comp stats, that there's a recorder in there now, which, of course, I think that makes it public record, a matter of public record at that point.

[00:26:33] I would imagine so, unless they're talking about some sort of personnel matters.

[00:26:38] But, I mean, I don't think so.

[00:26:41] So if you're making the recordings—

[00:26:42] And that's at his direction.

[00:26:45] And so I don't know if he thinks that's going to cost him to check himself, knowing that he's being recorded.

[00:26:53] I don't know.

[00:26:54] Yeah, maybe he gets better if he knows he's on tape now, although he seems to think that there was only one recording, which—were you aware of this recording that was made of him where he uses the racial slurs?

[00:27:06] Were you aware of that recording before you went to work for him?

[00:27:09] No, I was not.

[00:27:10] I don't remember if the recording was mentioned in the packet I received from FOP.

[00:27:16] Don't think that it was, but my first recollection of hearing about that recording came after I came.

[00:27:23] And then you secured it.

[00:27:25] Yes.

[00:27:25] And now you could hear him, and now he admits that's him on the recording, although he threw it out there that I could have lied about it, you know.

[00:27:33] I could have just said it was AI.

[00:27:34] I'm like, okay, well, good for not lying.

[00:27:38] He claims also that that's only—there's only one recording, and so that was only one incident.

[00:27:45] Was there more than one incident?

[00:27:46] So I've never heard any more recordings, but I've been told by a number of people who've been there for a long time that there are multiple recordings, that he routinely made racist comments about white employees using racially derogatory terms as well as black employees.

[00:28:02] I heard him myself tell a black employee that he had a plantation mentality.

[00:28:09] And again, he would also often tell black employees and tell people that they never got promoted until he came there, that they should be grateful to him.

[00:28:18] Now, of course, these were people who were supervisors.

[00:28:22] And the reality is, from what I'm told—and these are all high-ranking black employees—is that the previous sheriffs, all of whom were white, since McFadden was the first black sheriff from Mecklenburg County, all treated them much better than Gary McFadden did.

[00:28:36] And so—

[00:28:37] Do you think that they would be treated differently if they were white by McFadden?

[00:28:42] Do you think that McFadden, if he were white, would treat or would be suffering different ramifications for the way he treats his black employees?

[00:28:51] Absolutely.

[00:28:51] Absolutely.

[00:28:51] If he were white?

[00:28:52] I think so.

[00:28:53] And I told Gary McFadden this on June 18th, sitting in his office, that I thought his black employees would have gone public with his treatment a long time ago if he were white.

[00:29:03] I also told him that I didn't think that he would treat the majority of his employees who were black the way that he does if they were white.

[00:29:10] And he just looked at me.

[00:29:11] He didn't deny it.

[00:29:11] And again, that was sitting in his office on June 18th.

[00:29:16] But you had heard him make racial slurs multiple times?

[00:29:20] I heard him make a racist comment on one occasion.

[00:29:23] On one occasion.

[00:29:23] One occasion.

[00:29:24] In your presence.

[00:29:25] Yes.

[00:29:25] So that would be two.

[00:29:27] One you heard and the other on the tape.

[00:29:29] Yes.

[00:29:30] So when he says that this was the only time, it wasn't the only time.

[00:29:37] No, it wasn't the only time.

[00:29:38] And that happened two weeks after I came.

[00:29:40] And I was taken aback by it.

[00:29:42] And I wondered if it was just a one-off.

[00:29:44] And I have no problem sharing.

[00:29:46] Early in my career with the SBI, I worked in a lot of rural areas.

[00:29:49] I worked all over the state.

[00:29:50] And I heard white law enforcement officers make racist comments about black importance, black people, forgetting that I was in the room.

[00:29:56] Because I usually was, if I was in rural areas, I was usually.

[00:29:59] That's your narcotics undercover training.

[00:30:01] You were off to the side.

[00:30:03] Well, this was like a meeting.

[00:30:04] This was all law enforcement.

[00:30:05] All law enforcement personnel talking about a case.

[00:30:08] And they would forget that I was in the room.

[00:30:10] And they'd make a racist comment.

[00:30:11] And I would always be taken aback by it, processing it.

[00:30:15] Did this person really say what I think they said?

[00:30:17] Yeah.

[00:30:17] This is 1992, you know, I'm thinking at the time.

[00:30:19] Or 1993.

[00:30:20] And then I would have a conversation with them afterwards.

[00:30:24] And so I had the same reaction mentally when I heard McFadden make that comment.

[00:30:30] I never heard him say it again.

[00:30:32] In your presence?

[00:30:32] In my presence.

[00:30:33] Okay.

[00:30:34] But I did hear him say it that one time.

[00:30:37] But as far as his narcissism, I remember listening to your piece about the graduation ceremony.

[00:30:42] Oh, my gosh.

[00:30:44] What a completely inappropriate time to do any of that.

[00:30:46] I had been in communication with people before that happened.

[00:30:49] And we all anticipated him doing that.

[00:30:51] I witnessed inappropriate comments at graduation.

[00:30:56] Every single graduation ceremony is about him initially.

[00:31:00] I've been to countless law enforcement graduation ceremonies over 33 years.

[00:31:07] Various agency heads.

[00:31:09] It's never about them.

[00:31:10] It's always about the people graduating and their families and their achievements.

[00:31:14] And that's the way it should be.

[00:31:15] And so the very first one, and this has been referenced on some of the news outlets.

[00:31:21] I was sitting on stage and I had a suit on because I didn't have my class A uniform yet.

[00:31:25] And then he has his bio read.

[00:31:27] The most decorated.

[00:31:29] All the awards.

[00:31:31] All the awards.

[00:31:31] Legendary.

[00:31:32] And then he compliments me and Chief White.

[00:31:36] Then he makes denigrating comments about the majors sitting behind us.

[00:31:39] This is during the graduation ceremony in front of the cadets.

[00:31:42] And I was embarrassed.

[00:31:43] I was hot physically.

[00:31:45] My face was because I hoped that the people didn't think that I thought that was okay.

[00:31:49] And I was later told that he did it routinely and that even after some graduation ceremony, some people in the audience would come up to the executive team and apologize to them.

[00:32:00] And so fast forward to this graduation ceremony after I resigned.

[00:32:06] I watched it live on Facebook.

[00:32:09] Yeah.

[00:32:09] And receiving text messages from people who were actually there saying they couldn't believe it.

[00:32:14] I was told that a black supervisor after that was done came up and said to somebody else, what he did is the equivalent of the white person who's your who's overheard using a racially derogatory term for a black person saying, hey, I'm not racist.

[00:32:28] I have a black friend.

[00:32:33] Kevin Canty, I really do appreciate you coming in and hanging out and going over some of this stuff with us.

[00:32:38] Thanks for your service as well in law enforcement, but also in coming forward with this information, because I think the citizens and all of the staff, the employees at the agency need to know this.

[00:32:49] And I applaud you for it.

[00:32:51] Thanks for your time.

[00:32:51] I appreciate it.

[00:32:52] Thank you.

[00:32:52] My pleasure.

[00:32:53] All right.

[00:32:53] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:32:55] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:33:10] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.