Cop framed NC woman in 2005 robberies, bomb threats, judge rules. Now she sues

Miami Herald

7 days ago

An innocent woman implicated in a string of bank robberies and fake bomb threats 15 years after the crimes is suing the deputy who built the case against her, after a North Carolina judge ruled he framed her in violation of her constitutional rights.
Criminal charges against Jodi Blanton were dismissed May 18, 2024, by Superior Court Judge J. Lynn Gullett, who wrote in an order that Carl Duncan, a cold case detective with the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office, lied and faked evidence to support her arrest in May 2020 after the 'State previously declined to prosecute (her) on two separate occasions.'
Gullett's ruling says Duncan has a 'propensity to stretch, omit and falsify the truth when preparing investigative summaries and/or sworn applications for search warrants.'
In 2018, after the sheriff's office hired him, Duncan reopened the investigation into the 2005 robberies and bomb threats, which he initially investigated as a former Shelby police officer, according a federal lawsuit filed by Blanton against Duncan on July 28.
The filing says 'in the course of his re-investigation, Duncan uncovered no evidence linking Jodi Blanton' to the robberies or threats.
Duncan and the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office did not immediately return McClatchy News' requests for comment July 17.
'This has been a nightmare,' Blanton, who lives in Cleveland County, told McClatchy News on July 31.
'My strong Christian faith, my husband of 37 years, my son and my close family and friends helped me manage through this horrible experience that still haunts me daily,' Blanton added.
Duncan, according to a complaint, misled two judges into issuing search warrants, leading to two illegal searches of Blanton's home, where she lived with her husband Robert 'Bobby' Blanton, in February 2019. Afterward, he is further accused of misleading a district attorney into pursuing her prosecution.
During one search, the complaint says the Blantons' dog Briley, a 12-pound terrier, 'was severely injured by officers.'
Briley was 'forcefully restrained as others conducted the search and seized property,' Jodi Blanton's legal counsel, from Charlotte-based law firm Pfeiffer Rudolf, wrote in the filing.
Sonya Pfeiffer, one of the attorneys, told McClatchy News on July 31 that Briley was left with broken blood vessels in her eyes, as well as bruising on her stomach and under her legs.
'Jodi's father was present and witnessed them drag Briley with a noose around her neck,' Pfeiffer said via email. 'She was hauled downstairs with her legs dangling which bruised under her legs.'
Two photos Pfeiffer shared of Briley, showing the dog's injuries, were reviewed by McClatchy News.
When the sheriff's office's cold case unit announced Jodi Blanton's 2020 arrest, they said she robbed the First National Bank in Shelby in June 2005, Alliance Bank in Shelby in November 2005 and the BB&T Bank in Fallston in August of that year, The Shelby Star newspaper reported.
The agency further accused her of making a bomb threat over the phone to a Harris Teeter in Shelby, while the First National Bank robbery was underway, and another bomb threat against Burns Middle School in Lawndale the day the BB&T bank was robbed, according to the newspaper. The sheriff's office suggested Jodi Blanton tried distracting Cleveland County authorities with the bomb threats to carry out the robberies.
'After discovering some new evidence, Blanton was charged,' the newspaper reported May 28, 2020. 'The Sheriff's Office did not disclose what the new piece of evidence was.'
In his sworn affidavits, according to the complaint, Duncan left out exculpatory evidence, including how the Harris Teeter bomb threat was linked to a phone number unrelated to Jodi Blanton.
Duncan also never mentioned that when the First National Bank was robbed that day, witnesses' descriptions of the suspect, who they said was Black, did not match Jodi Blanton's appearance, the complaint says.
In Gullett's May 2024 order, the judge wrote that following the November 2005 Alliance Bank robbery, a bank teller said the accused robber wore a mask, had 'blonde curly hair and was wearing 'lots of makeup.''
'(The teller) indicated that the robber reminded her of someone that she knew by the name of Jodi Blanton, but she could not make a positive identification of Jodi Blanton,' Gullett wrote in the order.
Despite a lack of evidence and prosecutors previously declining to charge Jodi Blanton, she was arrested on felony charges related to the robberies and two counts of issuing a false bomb threat, according to the lawsuit.
Pfeiffer told McClatchy News that 'the Blantons are baffled as to why Duncan was so fixated on Jodi.'
In the May 2024 order, Gullett found 'Detective Duncan's negligence in failing to preserve evidence, coupled with intentional misrepresentations as to material facts in investigative summaries presented to the District Attorney, and his inclusion of material falsehoods in sworn statements in search warrants, has collectively caused actual prejudice to (Blanton).'
It is unclear if the 2005 robberies and bomb threats have been solved.
Jodi Blanton is suing Duncan on three federal claims under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations, including:
fabrication of evidence and use of false evidenceunlawful search without probable causeunlawful seizure without probable cause/malicious prosecution
She is bringing three state claims – malicious prosecution, gross negligence/recklessness and intentional infliction of emotional distress – against Duncan.
'For over 20 years, I have watched with shock and a sense of helplessness as my wife and family have lived in isolation, wrestling with fear and humiliation for being wrongly accused,' Bobby Blanton said in a statement to McClatchy News.
'By the Grace of God and love for one another we have managed to endure. But it has been almost indescribably difficult.'
Jodi Blanton wants accountability and an unspecified amount in damages in the lawsuit. She demands a jury trial.
'I work daily on forgiveness, but justice and accountability matter to me and my family, and I pray nothing like this happens to anyone else,' she said.