Columbus County Jail Beating Results in $975,000 Settlement

A man who sustained a traumatic brain injury and broken bones while held in the Columbus County jail settled a lawsuit against Sheriff Bill Rogers, former Sheriff Jody Greene, and several deputies for $975,000, a newly released document shows.

Four men held in detention at the facility attacked Joshua Johnson, who was being held on misdemeanor charges, in August 2022. The incident raised concerns about oversight at the jail under Greene, and local District Attorney Jon David cited it as a reason to remove Greene from office. 

Greene “failed to properly supervise officers” and “permitted dangerous, and potentially deadly conditions” to exist at the jail, David wrote in petitions for his removal. (Greene resigned before the removal proceedings concluded, and Rogers was appointed in his place.)  

Terms of the settlement, which The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent obtained from Columbus County through a public records request, prohibit Johnson or anyone named in the lawsuit from speaking publicly about the case. The defendants admitted no liability in the agreement, which was signed in June. But a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in North Carolina’s Eastern District in 2023 describes the horror that Johnson endured. 

Johnson had been jailed for five days awaiting trial when he was moved to a pod that housed gang members on August 3, 2022, according to the lawsuit. His lawyers told The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent in 2023 that Johnson was not in a gang. He initially told detention officer Bernetta Crawford that he had no problems with anyone on the pod. But when he recognized someone he thought might pose a threat and asked to be moved, Crawford said no. 

Once inside the pod, Johnson moved his mattress near the exit in an apparent effort to get officers’ attention. He also repeatedly pressed the emergency call button. No one responded. 

Four inmates pulled Johnson into a cell at 2:16 p.m. and beat him severely, dragging him back in when he tried to escape, according to the lawsuit. When the four men took Johnson into the showers, others in the pod frantically pressed the emergency call button.    

Johnson was able to get to a common area, where he collapsed in a pool of blood. A detention officer returning from lunch noticed him at 2:45 p.m., 29 minutes after the attack began. 

Live surveillance footage would have shown what transpired. But either no one was watching, or “they were staring at the monitor and didn’t really care,” Paul Smith, an attorney who represented Johnson, said in 2023. 

State regulations mandate that detention officers do twice-hourly supervision rounds. The day Johnson was attacked, officers had not done the checks since their shift began at 7 a.m., leaving the pod unmonitored for nearly eight hours, according to the lawsuit.

The jail in Whiteville has a history of citations for supervision problems, according to inspection reports from 2023 and ‘24 that The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent obtained.

In December 2023, a state inspector noted nine gaps in supervision rounds—the longest was 49 minutes—over the previous two days, with particular problems at the showers. 

The sheriff’s office said in its response to the finding that jail leaders had emphasized the importance of timely rounds and planned to hire more staff. With new software and equipment to help supervisors oversee the rounds, “we hope to eliminate this problem in the future,” Jail Administrator Robert Creech wrote. 

Three detention officers were disciplined for lapses in supervision following the inspection, said Jenna Jalving, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. The jail facility has gotten several updates, she said, including a new camera system and updated supervision software. 

But in November 2024, a state inspector again found supervisory gaps. In at least two instances, an hour or more passed between rounds. The report also noted that towels, sheets, blankets, and jumpsuits hanging from bunks blocked officers’ view, a violation of state law. 

Columbus County Sheriff’s Capt. Trina Worley wrote in the agency’s response that administrators were monitoring rounds each day and shift supervisors were being held responsible for ensuring that officers meet the state’s requirements. Every officer was notified of the standards, she wrote.

The 2025 inspection is not complete, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

The dollar figure in a settlement like Johnson’s generally reflects the severity of the injuries and the degree of negligence, said Michael Porter, a Fayetteville attorney who handles personal injury and wrongful death cases but who was not involved in the Columbus County case. 

“An amount like that usually means that defense counsel assessed the facts, and even though they denied liability and didn’t admit to anything, they felt like their exposure was at least that, if not potentially more, if a jury didn’t go their way,” he said.

Johnson’s injuries left him unable to work after the attack, Smith said in 2023. 

“He can’t do what he used to do physically,” Smith said. “He suffers from significant anxiety and panic attacks. It’s very difficult for him to be in places with groups of people. He has terrible respiratory issues. And he has cognitive deficiencies that he did not have before.” 

The State Bureau of Investigation charged four people with attempted murder in relation to the attack, including a man who was later convicted of killing a Bladen County woman in 2021. 

Inmate deaths often involve inadequate supervision as a result of overcrowding or being understaffed, said Luke Woollard, an attorney with North Carolina Disability Rights’s prisons and jails project.

“It is at its base a very troubling problem,” Woollard said, “because supervision is so important to keep everybody in the facility safe.” 

Woollard said the state needs to give counties more money to hire additional detention officers and improve communities’ access to mental health and substance misuse services to keep people out of jail in the first place.

Sometimes, he said, county commissioners and sheriffs are dedicated to reducing safety concerns at jails but lack the resources to make changes. “You see that more in the smaller counties.” 

Columbus County participates in pooled insurance, which will make a $725,000 payment to Johnson’s attorneys, per the terms of the settlement.

Carli Brosseau is a reporter at The Assembly. She joined us  from The News & Observer, where she was an investigative reporter. Her work has been honored by the Online News Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors, and published by ProPublica and The New York Times.