Highway Patrol cites actions in two cases in upholding sergeant's firing

Goswick, a 22-year veteran of the Highway Patrol, was fired in September, and Col. Glenn McNeill upheld the decision last month, according to a final agency decision letter obtained Monday by WRAL News. Goswick has another week to appeal the firing in court.

Officers were responding to reports of a man with a gun yelling at passing cars near the intersection of North Raleigh Boulevard and Yonkers Road when they confronted Hinton on April 3.

Hinton, who was unarmed, said he suffered a broken eye socket, broken nose, multiple cuts on his head, "probably 20 bite marks" and memory loss during the incident when several officers pushed him up against a patrol car and hit him while a Wake County Sheriff's Office K-9 bit him on his right arm, side and head.

Dashboard camera videos from patrol cars at the scene show Broadwell hitting Hinton as his K-9, Loki, takes Hinton to the ground.

During the ensuing scrum with several officers, one officer is seen kicking Hinton, while another can be seen punching him as he refuses to give in to law enforcement.

In the audio for several dashboard camera videos, including Broadwell's and Blake's, someone repeatedly issues an order to hit Hinton in the head.

Authorities allege Broadwell and Blake beat and kicked Hinton and that Davis hit him with her flashlight. Authorities also allege that the three former troopers provided false and misleading information during the Highway Patrol's investigation of the incident.

Davis can be heard in her dashcam audio referring to "body blows" Hinton received and noted she had blood on her flashlight and her hands. She told Goswick, who arrived at the scene a short time later, that she had hit Hinton in the head, and Blake said he had kicked Hinton in the ribs and had been the one to issue the command for Davis to hit Hinton in the head.

Goswick was then heard telling the troopers that he had reviewed video of the incident and that no use of force by them could be seen.

Woman says trooper accused in Raleigh man's beating roughed her up few days earlier

Six days before Hinton's arrest, Blake pulled Kimberly Ingram over and yanked her out of her car. He left her handcuffed in his patrol car for more than an hour while troopers and a K-9 searched her car for drugs.

McNeill noted in his Dec. 14 letter that Goswick essentially ignored complaints Ingram filed over her arrest. He didn't review dashboard camera video of the incident and took Blake's word for what occurred, according to findings in the case attached to the letter.

In Hinton's case, Goswick never bothered to question Blake or Davis about their actions in the arrest and went so far as to wipe blood off Davis' flashlight, according to findings in the case.

"[Y]ou attempted to justify your neglect of duty based on the assertion that your subordinate troopers lied to you. Nonetheless, that does not absolve you of your wrongdoing," McNeill wrote in his letter. "[Y]our failure to appreciate the seriousness of your conduct on the above occasions combined with your demonstrated lack of integrity constitute an unacceptable breach of the public trust [and] have been an embarrassment to the Highway Patrol.