Jason Kloepfer, a Cherokee County North Carolina man shot multiple times in December by the Cherokee Indian Police Department SWAT team, filed a response Monday to County Attorney Darrell Brown’s motion to dismiss defamation charges based on qualified immunity.
The plaintiff’s response is the latest legal move in a story AmmoLand News has been providing exclusive reports on since January when claims about the shooting by Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith were directly contradicted by a video Kloepfer recorded of the incident that the sheriff’s office was apparently unaware of when it issued a press release at the center of the defamation claim.
Instead of being confrontational, forcing officers to shoot him, Kloepfer emerged from his trailer as ordered with hands raised when the SWAT team opened fire with a hail of bullets, severely wounding the man and narrowly missing his wife standing directly behind him.
That report was followed with two in February, the first documenting a lack of major media coverage and presenting key questions left unanswered in the sheriff’s attempts to absolve himself and his department of any responsibility for events he set in motion. The second posting is a time-lined transcript of the Calls for Service Report and Dispatch Recording, highlighting the dangers of SWATting based on unproven allegations. Those reports were followed in April with a follow-up article that showed a new SWAT shooting video taken seven hours after the initial one and featuring State Bureau of Investigation officers, and then raised conflict of interest concerns over the District Attorney recusing herself.
Earlier this month, a new report documented a contradiction between Sheriff Smith’s public claim that he was not at the scene of the shooting and a court filing by the Cherokee Indian Police defendants claiming, “It is admitted that Sheriff Smith was present at the scene of the Property at all times that these Defendants were present at the Property on December 13, 2022.”
With that as a backdrop, Kloepfer’s assertions against the County Attorney’s Motion to dismiss reject his claims, citing precedents, arguing qualified immunity does not apply because “Defendant Brown published a press release he knew or should have known to be false to ‘control the narrative’ about misconduct in a malicious and corrupt manner that constituted conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice,” and that “Defendant Brown (and all CCSD Defendants) waived any defense of governmental immunity for the official capacity claims against the Sheriff based on the state law claims by the purchase of insurance.”
Kloepfer’s response follows:
Police Shooting Victim Disputes County Attorney’s Attempt to Have Complaint Dismissed by AmmoLand Shooting Sports News on Scribd
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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