Former sheriff defends Granville deputy at his corruption trial

Former Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins made some surprising admissions in court on Wednesday afternoon.

"If he did it, it's because I told him," Wilkins said under cross examination by Wake Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Pomeroy.

Wilkins testified in defense of former deputy Chad Coffey who is on trial for falsifying records about firearms training for members of the sheriff's department. Indictments against Coffey allege that he doctored training records for Wilkins and former Chief Deputy Sherwood Boyd from 2012 to 2018.

During the cross-examination, Pomeroy asked Wilkins if he was aware that forgery as a crime.

You believe you may have ordered one of your deputies to commit a crime?" Pomeroy asked Wilkins.

"All I wanted the deputy to do if he signed it, was to save the hassle and time of doing paperwork," said Wilkins. "Chad Coffey hasn't done anything. He hasn't done anything and he hasn't signed anything that I didn't tell him to do. The whole thing is just wrong."

Coffey, who took the stand after Wilkins, admitted he signed off on the forms at Wilkins' instruction, but said he didn't consider it a crime.

Coffey told the jury he knew the sheriff and chief deputy were highly qualified with firearms when he signed off on the paperwork.

Wilkins' testimony and presence in court came as a surprise to some, given that he faces a trial of his own. He was indicted on charges of obtaining property by false pretense and obstruction of justice linked to allegations that he doctored records about his in-service training and firearms training from 2012 to 2018, and he is accused of urging someone to kill a deputy in 2014.

Coffey on the stand said he worked his whole life to be in law enforcement. He claimed he never thought signing for sheriff and chief deputy was a felony. 

"As passionate as I was about training law enforcement, if I thought this could ever happen [being charged with felonies] in the farthest stretch of imagination, I would have never done it, nor would [Wilkins] have told me to do it," said Coffey. 

In response, Pomeroy asked Coffey, "if Sheriff Wilkins asked you to jump off a bridge, would you?"

"Sheriff Wilkins would never ask me to do that," Coffey replied.