By Tim Gardner
On Thursday, August 1, a jury found William J. Barthel guilty in Avery County Superior Court for one count each of Disruption of an Official Meeting and Resisting a Public Officer concerning his conduct during a regular monthly meeting of the county’s Board of Commissioners on January 16.
As the county commissioners began the meeting’s public comment segment, Barthel was in the back of their board boom in the County Administration Building in Newland with a vinyl banner that included an image of Assistant County Manager and Clerk to the Board of Commissioners Cindy Huffman Turbyfill and vulgar language.
Barthel was approached by Sheriff’s Office Captain Mike Watson andasked to remove his banner. Barthel refused, claiming his First Amendment right to free speech. Commission Chairman Tim Phillips, the meeting’s moderator, then requested that Barthel be removed from the board room by sheriff’s deputies present, citing his disruption of it. After a brief scuffle with the sheriff’s deputies in the board room, Barthel was removed by them to the adjoining hallway. He questioned if he was trespassing at the meeting and continued to resist being removed from the board room. He used obscene language directed at the law enforcement officers that could be heard inside the meeting from the hallway.
Avery Sheriff Mike Henley was also contacted and he and additional deputies responded to the County Administration Building to assist the deputies present with the situation. Barthel was then arrested and transported to the Avery County Detention Center (Jail), also in Newland, where he was booked. The resisting public officer charge was because of Barthel’s conduct against Sheriff’s Deputy Caleb Hicks.
Barthel was released from jail the day (January 17) following his arrest after posting a $1,000.00 bond. He first appeared in Avery County District Court concerning the charges on Wednesday, February 7. His case was then continued until May 14.
Barthel was found guilty by Judge Matt Ruppin Avery County District Court on May 14 of both charges, each of which is a misdemeanor. An Avery Clerk of Court’s office spokeswoman told High Country Press that Barthel filed an appeal on May 23.
The appeal meant that the case was moved from District Court to Superior Court and heard by a jury. It had been added to an Avery County Superior Court session on May 28. However, the following day (May 29), Judge Gary Gavenus, who was the presiding judge over that court session, excused the jurors from further duty without Barthel’s case being heard. It was later continued to July 29.
Following the guilty verdict on August 1, Judge Gavenus, who again was the presiding judge in the appellate court session, almost entirely upheld the same sentence Judge Rupp gave Barthel in District Court. Barthel was sentenced to sixty (60) days in jail, thirty (30) days on each convicted charge, with one (1) day credit for the day he already served when he was arrested before he posted bond. The sentence was suspended, meaning Barthel was not jailed for the two convictions. Barthel also received thirty-six (36) months of supervised probation (18 months for conviction of each charge), he must perform seventy-two (72) hours of community service during the first ninety (90) days of his probation, and he was ordered to pay $2,468.50 in total court costs within sixty (60) days of the Superior Court judgment.
Barthel is also banned from attending any Avery County Board of Commissioners meetings while he is on probation.
Judge Gavenus increased the number of community service hours by twenty-four (24) from the District Court ruling of forty-eight (48) that Barthel must perform.
Judge Gavenus mandated that Barthel, age 31 (born May 8, 1993), with a last known address of 1661 Emerald Mine Road in the Mitchell County town of Spruce Pine, will serve his probation in that county instead of in Avery.
According to court documents listing his rulings, Judge Gavenus also ordered Barthel not to assault, threaten, harass, or be on work or home properties, or to contact directly or indirectly, Cindy Turbyfill, and not to initiate communication with her by any means whatsoever during his three-year probation term.
If Barthel breaks any conditions of his sentence or is charged with any other legal offenses during his probation period, he will be returned to court and a judge could change his jail sentence from suspended to activated. That means that Barthel would then be jailed to serve the part of his sentence that was originally suspended. A judge could then also add other sanctions to Barthel’s sentence including additional jail time, more monetary fines, more hours of community service, and extend his period of probation.
The jury hearing Barthel’s case consisted of twelve (12) jurors with two (2) alternate jurors. Under State of North Carolina law, a jury has to render a unanimous decision in determining if a defendant or defendants is/are guilty of any charge or charges, or to uphold a conviction if an appeal is filed, or the case against a defendant or defendants will be dismissed by the presiding Superior Court session judge.
Sheriff Henley released the following statement to High Country Press about Barthel’s conviction in Superior Court: “This is not a First Amendment issue and never has been despite Mister Barthel’s contention. There are appropriate ways to express your constitutional rights and his ways in this case were inappropriate. One person’s constitutional rights end where another person’s begins.
“I commend my deputies who were involved with Mister Barthel’s case. They showed tremendous restraint and correctly applied the law in his removal from the commissioners’ board room and ensuing arrest.”
Barthel was represented in his court case by Spruce Pine attorney Bill (Billy) Bomar. Neither Barthel nor Bomar have responded to requests by High Country Press to make a statement about Barthel’s court case.
Barthel, also known as the “White Rabbit,” is originally from New Castle, Delaware, according to Sheriff Henley.
Nick Benjamin was the prosecutor of the case versus Barthel for the State of North Carolina Prosecutorial District Number 35.
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