A Charlotte defense attorney says she recognized an officer connected to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s racist text-message scandal during a traffic stop involving her 19-year-old client, a case that ended with prosecutors admitting they had charged the wrong person. The stop happened in North Charlotte in December 2025, and the gun charge against the teenager was dismissed months later after officers told prosecutors they had made a mistake.
Attorney Deanna Taylor told WCNC that officers stopped a car carrying her client and his friends over a headlight issue, then searched the vehicle after reporting they smelled marijuana. Police said they found a gun inside, and Taylor’s client — a passenger with no prior criminal history, according to Taylor — was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He insisted he did not own the gun.
Taylor said she identified the officer after seeing images of officers tied to the text-message controversy, and that a second officer linked to the scandal also assisted in her client’s arrest. She said body-camera footage contradicted the account laid out in the charging documents, and she challenged the lead officer about the discrepancy in court rather than accept a first-time offender arrangement for her client.
Charge Dropped After Officers Admit Error
The concealed-weapon charge was ultimately dismissed after officers told prosecutors they had made a mistake. Court records listed the dismissal reason as wrong person charged per law enforcement officer, the station reported. Taylor said she believes her client and his friends were targeted because they are Black, telling the station: “I think honestly it was just one of those things that, hey, these kids are up to no good… for being young Black kids.”
Taylor said she is now reviewing other cases involving the same officers to determine whether the mistaken charge reflects a broader pattern of misconduct. The scrutiny comes as the officer text-message scandal continues to ripple through CMPD’s ranks and the local court system.
Text-Message Scandal Widens Across CMPD
The racist texts at the center of the controversy surfaced while the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was looking into CMPD officer Seth Elliott over alleged misuse of the Flock camera network, according to WBTV. That station reported the fallout could extend well beyond internal discipline, since officers connected to the text thread may now face credibility questions that prosecutors are obligated to disclose in criminal cases they touch.
Reports differ on exactly how many officers are implicated. WBTV reported that six officers were cited for termination, with others alleged to be involved in the text thread already having resigned, while BPR reported that CMPD publicly identified seven officers connected to the investigation. The dossier of evidence reviewed does not establish whether the officers involved in Taylor’s client’s stop are among those named in either count.
Disparities in Who Gets Stopped and Searched
The scandal has intensified longstanding questions about racial disparities in CMPD traffic enforcement. Black residents make up 33.7% of the population CMPD serves but accounted for 56.7% of its traffic stops in 2026, according to Yahoo News. The outlet also reported that CMPD searched 2,613 people during traffic stops in 2025, and 80.9% of those searched were Black drivers, while 16 of the 18 traffic stops in which the department used force that year involved Black drivers.
A separate report from WBTV, citing data submitted to NC Cop Watch, found that through May 31, 2026, 56% of CMPD traffic stops involved Black drivers and 83% of searches involved Black drivers — figures that don’t precisely match Yahoo News’s 56.7% stop rate for the full year, underscoring how the underlying data points vary depending on the reporting window. Yahoo News also reported that regulatory, equipment and other non-moving violations made up 52.8% of CMPD traffic stops in 2025, totaling 23,790 stops, prompting the Second Chance Federation to call on CMPD to stop pulling drivers over for those violations altogether. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office adopted a similar restriction in September 2022 under Sheriff Garry McFadden, per Yahoo News, but that policy has never applied to CMPD.
Under North Carolina’s vehicle-lighting statute, G.S. 20-131, a vehicle’s driving light must make a person 200 feet ahead clearly discernible under normal atmospheric conditions on a level road — the kind of equipment standard that can trigger a stop like the one Taylor’s client experienced. Taylor’s review of other cases tied to the same officers remains ongoing, and it is not yet known whether it will surface additional dismissals or disciplinary findings.
