Brittany McPhail came out of the Lenoir County District Criminal Court wiping tears from her eyes.
“It’s a great deal of relief,” she said.
She had just heard Judge W. Brian DeSoto declare her not guilty of resisting arrest in her bench trial Tuesday. The trial, in the middle of the day’s usual district court motions and pleadings, took two and a half hours and frequently centered as much on the actions of Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office deputies as it did McPhail.
Detective Michael Williams, the lead officer on the case, said on the stand he was heading home between 11:30 p.m. and midnight on July 5, 2012 from working the night shift assisting the N.C. Highway Patrol, and coming upon a gold car near the intersection of Falling Creek and Paul’s Path roads.
He said he noticed the car crossing the center line at least three times between there and U.S. 70. He said he was going to give the driver the benefit of the doubt, until the car pulled off U.S. 70 onto Washington Street headed into La Grange without stopping for a red light before turning.
McPhail, a senior at UNC Greensboro, was herself returning home after working a shift at Nova Behavioral Health in Kinston. In her testimony, McPhail said she noticed a car she was unfamiliar with getting close to the rear of the car and backing away several times, sometimes getting so close she couldn’t see the headlights.
The Ford Crown Victoria Williams was driving was unmarked, with lights in the cab.
McPhail, breaking down in tears several times recounting the incident, said she was scared and called her father. She also disputed the detective’s assertion the light was red when she turned onto Washington Street, saying it was green.
Once McPhail turned, Williams turned on the flashing and strobe lights, but McPhail continued at a measured pace down the road. Jimmy, her father, told her to keep going until she reached a well-lit area. The Travelers Service Station in La Grange where she stopped was the only lit area open at that time.
Brittany McPhail and her father both said the reason she didn’t immediately pull over was they knew of circumstances when rapists would masquerade as law enforcement officers in unmarked police cars, and they wanted to make sure she was in a safer place.
Once at the service station, a number of facts were undisputed, though the details have yet to be officially borne out. Williams pulled in at an angle to block McPhail, while deputies working a nearby roadblock drove over to assist. McPhail’s father pulled into the station at about the same time.
Getting out of his car, Williams — admittedly agitated and scared, not immediately knowing who or what was in the car he was following — said, “Are you f—-ing crazy?”
At the time, he was wearing a gray shirt, his sidearm and badge, black tactical pants and black boots.
Williams and McPhail exchanged words, and he, with the assistance of other deputies, pulled her out of the car and onto the ground, pepper-sprayed her and handcuffed her. Williams then went into the service station to get water to wash the pepper spray out of her eyes.
From there, McPhail, the deputies and her parents went to the LCSO office in La Grange, and then to the Lenoir County Courthouse for processing.
DeSoto related a story about his wife getting pulled over, and his instructions to her to go to a well-lit area. He said though he saw some validity in the prosecution’s story, there was enough reasonable doubt to declare McPhail not guilty.
Jimmy McPhail has filed a complaint with the LCSO, and prosecutor Matt Delbridge used the possible threat of a civil suit to suggest the motivation for the McPhails to cast the deputies in a poor light, but they denied the intention.
Following the trail, the family was excited.
“Great. I feel great,” Jimmy McPhail said.
His brother Charles, who was the assistant chief of the defunct La Grange Police Department, said the charge couldn’t stand.
“First of all, if you don’t have a primary charge, how are you going to say resisting arrest? You’ve got to have something leading up to the resisting arrest,” Charles McPhail said. “It makes no sense.”
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.