Sarah Scully, Anchor/Reporter
“Our child was in my arms when he threatened me w/knife,” reads a domestic violence protective order against Madison County Sheriff “Buddy” Harwood.
While investigating former Madison County Chief Deputy Coy Phillips, currently awaiting trial for 5 felonies and 2 misdemeanors, I received a tip from a former Madison County Sheriff’s Office employee that led me to the Buncombe County Courthouse and to the civil Clerk of Court records.
These specific civil records started in 1994, with the clerk flipping through files on a microfiche machine to find them.
And soon, I discovered a domestic violence protective order against Madison County Sheriff James Ernest “Buddy” Harwood for threatening his first wife with a knife while she held their 3-year-old daughter.
She said he “threatened to cut my throat with a knife if I called for help.”
The 39-page civil court records file details the year-long civil domestic violence protective order, a DVPO, filed against the then part-time Weaverville cop in 1994 from his spouse’s sworn testimony.
He violated the DVPO with a threatening phone call May 26, 1995, witnessed by her fellow co-worker at North Buncombe High School.
She said, “I am afraid that he will try to hurt me.”
The judge charged him with contempt of court and gave him a suspended sentence, which in 1995 did not give him a criminal record.
UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government Assistant Professor of Public Law and Government on Criminal Law Brittany Williams Bromell said in a Aug. 24 email that NC Senate Bill 627 changed the law for DVPO violations committed on or after Dec. 1, 1997 from a civil offense to a criminal conviction.
This law meant that someone who violated a DVPO after the 1997 change would have a criminal record with a Class A1 misdemeanor.
If the sheriff’s DVPO violation had happened after the 1997 law change, and he then had a Class A1 misdemeanor for domestic violence, would he be able to be a cop now?
Possibly, yes, as the NC Department of Justice does not exclude a Class A1 misdemeanor on minimum requirements for police officers.
Possibly, no, as individual law enforcement agencies may require higher standards with a DVPO violation an automatic disqualifier, as seen on the Rocky Mount, NC police requirements page.
A-B Tech College Director of Law Enforcement Training Darryl Fisher, a police officer since 1985, said in a July 24 phone call that for anyone trying to take his law enforcement training certification with a Class A1 misdemeanor for domestic violence, “I would not allow them to come to class, because in my opinion they could not be certified as a police officer. My thought is they should not attend any program in the state.”
A public records request shows that Harwood was a full-time Weaverville police officer from 1988 to 1990, and was listed on their master payroll until 1999, which means he was a part-time auxiliary police officer when his ex-wife filed the DVPO in 1994 and when the DVPO violation occurred in 1995.
Another public records request shows Harwood went back to work full-time as a Woodfin cop from 1996 to 1997, before eventually winning repeat elections as Madison County’s sheriff starting in 2009.
He is up for re-election on the Democratic Party ballot Nov. 3.
I contacted the Madison County District Attorney Seth Banks office in a July 8 email, sending him the court records, but did not receive a response.
As Harwood is up for re-election, I asked Madison County Democratic Party Chair Paula Clayton Dempsey July 13 for comment about her candidate’s DVPO violation.
She did not respond, so I asked her niece, NC Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton for comment on the sheriff Aug. 18.
She did not respond by press time.
I spoke to Harwood’s ex-wife, listed as Tanya Kent Harwood, on the DVPO violation by phone July 13.
Initially, she said she recanted the charges in a letter that she gave to the sheriff. NC Rule 60 requires a recant to go before a judge within a year of the ruling.
I asked her if she’d gone before a judge, and she said she could not remember. When I told her that the Buncombe County Clerk of Court had double-checked, and that record did not exist, I then asked her if it meant she had lied on the original statement and during the DVPO violation hearing.
“I’m not saying I lied,” she said. “I’m not saying that at all.”
Ashevile Criminal Defense Attorney Thomas Amburgey said in a July 17 phone call concerning Rule 60 cases, “Judges are not really happy about going in and undoing them because the plaintiff has to admit to perjury.”
Moments after finding the sheriff’s DVPO violation civil records, I reached out to him through Madison County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Van Duncan in a July 8 phone call, and then had multiple subsequent text messages and phone calls with promised documentation, including the mentioned letter from his ex-wife, refuting the DVPO.
Those were never sent to me, and I requested an official statement from the sheriff via email Aug. 18.
“No response,” said Van Duncan in an Aug. 19 email.
Note: Special thanks to Catherine Komp, of nclocal.org, and Sally Kestin, of avlwatchdog.org, for all your feedback! ❤️
1997 DVPO law change: https://ncleg.gov/BillLookup/1997/S627
Current NC 50B law, DVPO perjury: https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByChapter/Chapter_50b.html
NC Rule 60: https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_1a/gs_1a-1,_rule_60.html
Automatic disqualifiers for cop application: https://www.rockymountnc.gov/306/Recruitment
“Good moral character” cop requirement: https://nccriminallaw.sog.unc.edu/2025/09/15/devalle-and-the-good-moral-character-requirement-for-law-enforcement-officers/
NC Domestic Violence Law pre-1989: https://archives.law.nccu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1463&context=ncclr
NC original 50B Law: https://archives.law.nccu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1463&context=ncclr
Current NC DOJ law enforcement hiring standards:
