Nov. 2, 2026 Publication
So, this story will bring you the work records of Madison County Sheriff’s Office candidates - Robin Lyles for the Republicans and Sheriff Buddy Harwood for the Democrats.
Let’s start with Lyles - during an extensive interview Sept. 4, I asked for and he provided the places he worked as a cop, and the years he worked there.
I sent in public records requests and received his personnel record from the Asheville Police Department from 1983 to his retirement in 2007. He worked at AB-Tech Asheville from November 1997 to February 2017 as a Law Enforcement Continuing Education Training Coordinator.
AB-Tech’s Executive Director of Community Relations and Marketing Kerri Glover told me that, “We cannot share employment records, they are exempt from the public records. The only thing we can do is give employment dates. There is nothing we can do.”
Lyles then worked part-time at the Madison County Sheriff’s Office from 2017 to 2021. In 2022, he started work for Gaston County Sheriff’s Office as a full-time deputy before switching to part-time in 2023. He is still employed there.
I have no other documentation regarding his work records or performance.
So, let’s take a look at Harwood.
On the sheriff’s app, his biography does not mention anything before 1999. I do have his personnel record while serving as a Madison deputy from a public records request.
But, I learned through investigating the sheriff’s Domestic Violence Protective Order violation from the 90s, that he was a serving police officer before 1999.
I’d received a tip that he used to be a cop for the Town of Woodfin.
So I asked for and received a public records request on his employment listing a hiring date of July 1996 and a voluntary demotion in February of 1997, with a voluntary resignation a month later.
I also headed up to the Federal building in downtown Asheville with a case number in hand - no cell phones allowed in that building - to research a case against Harwood’s then Woodfin Police Chief Darrell Rathburn.
Harwood testified against his former boss for assaulting prisoners in custody and Rathburn was later found guilty of eight felonies.
I asked Harwood if he could please explain the voluntary demotion and resignation, and if there was a connection to Rathburn.
He did not respond.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government Professor of Public Law and Government Jeffrey Welty said in an Oct. 27 email regarding reasons for an officer’s voluntary demotion and resignation that, “There are many, many reasons that could be the case, some of which have nothing to do with the officer’s competence or professionalism.”
I also asked Harwood where he worked before and after Woodfin.
He did not respond.
So, I started emailing local towns, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office and the Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s North Carolina Department of Justice Communications Director Naz Ahmed for public records requests.
This is what I found out:
After Woodfin, he worked as the Town of Hot Springs Police Chief from 2000 to 2002, as confirmed by Hot Springs Mayor Abby Norton as the files were lost in the flood from Helene.
Before Woodfin, he was a Town of Weaverville cop from March 1988 to February 1990 when he resigned and moved to auxiliary status - described as part-time work - on Weaverville’s payroll until 1999.
After months of repeated attempts for information on Harwood from the state, Ahmed sent Harwood’s workplace history, as you can see here.
