NEWTON — Brookford Police Chief Willie Armstrong’s lawsuit against District Attorney Scott Reilly runs 152 pages, and the filed copy now shows the letter at the center of the fight.
The complaint was filed electronically in Catawba County Superior Court at 4:27 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, under file number 26CV004493-170. When Catawba First News first reported the suit on Sunday, we had not seen it. We have now read the filed complaint and its 23 exhibits. Everything below about what happened is Armstrong’s account or the text of documents he attached. None of it has been tested in court, and no response from Reilly or the state defendants has been filed or posted that we could find.
Our first story on the suit explained the 2021 state law involved, G.S. 17C-16, and the July statements from Reilly, Hickory Police Chief Bryan Adams and Sheriff Don Brown.
The letter
Armstrong attached Reilly’s Oct. 9, 2025, letter, headed “Giglio Disclosure.” Giglio is the U.S. Supreme Court case that requires prosecutors to tell defendants about information that could undercut a government witness.
In the letter, Reilly told Armstrong his office “will no longer be able to use you as a witness for the State of North Carolina in any criminal or traffic cases.” He wrote that the SBI briefed his office on Jan. 14, 2025, about an interview Armstrong did in October 2023, and that the SBI presented evidence Armstrong recorded a suspect without the person knowing and later deleted part of the recording.
Reilly wrote that he handed any criminal case to the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys because of a conflict, but kept the witness decision because it was his responsibility as the elected district attorney. A committee of assistant district attorneys convened by Chief Assistant District Attorney Tim Gould recommended unanimously that Armstrong not be used as a witness, the letter says. Reilly sent Armstrong notice on April 15, 2025, and met with him and his lawyers on Sept. 29, 2025.
The letter concludes that Armstrong’s conduct amounted to “sustained violations of professional conduct,” in truthfulness, report submission and duty responsibility. Reilly copied Brookford Mayor Thomas Schronce, the town attorney and the state commission that certifies officers.
Armstrong’s side of it
The complaint says the phone sat in plain view on the table during the interview, and that what Armstrong cut from the file was audio recorded after the officers left, which investigators’ reports describe as television sound. He trimmed it to make the file smaller, the complaint says. It acknowledges he should have kept the whole recording and that he did not write an incident report or log the recording into evidence on time. It denies he acted dishonestly and says he gave investigators a copy on Jan. 9, 2025.
The criminal case charged him with evidence tampering and willful failure to discharge his duties, according to the complaint. He was indicted in May 2025. A special prosecutor from the Conference of District Attorneys tried the case, and on June 11, 2026, the judge dismissed both charges at the close of the state’s evidence, before the defense called a witness.
The complaint says Armstrong’s lawyer asked Reilly in writing the next day to withdraw the witness notice, and Reilly refused without giving a reason.
March 2026
Three letters dated March 23 and 24, 2026, are attached.
Sheriff Brown’s letter, dated March 23, ended the sheriff’s office’s mutual-aid agreements with Brookford. A March 24 letter from Hickory’s outside attorney, Timothy D. Swanson, ended Hickory’s agreements and said Brookford officers are not authorized to do routine or proactive police work inside Hickory without an independent legal basis. It was copied to Reilly.
Reilly’s own March 24 letter went to Mayor Schronce. It said his office had “credible information” that Armstrong was still making traffic stops, was having other officers finish enforcement actions, and had recently gone to “an active homicide scene” outside town. It said Brookford officers “shall have no authority” outside town limits and directed them to stop any involvement there. It ended by saying the office “strongly encourages the Town of Brookford to take whatever action is necessary to address this matter.” He copied the town council and the interim director of the officer standards commission.
In July, Reilly said through WBTV that this letter was not meant to pressure the town to fire Armstrong. The town read it differently. In an April 23 reply quoted in the complaint, the town called it “a directive to terminate Chief Armstrong,” said a district attorney has no authority over town hiring or firing, and said it would not revisit the appointment.
The complaint alleges Reilly worked with the sheriff’s office and Hickory police on the cutoff. It says a sheriff’s office major circulated draft withdrawal letters March 16 through 18 and copied the March 18 draft to Reilly and Gould. It says neither agency has restored mutual aid.
One case left uncharged
The complaint points to a Brookford case it says the district attorney’s office turned down. After a chase Armstrong started, officers recovered three guns, including a loaded AR-15-style rifle and a stolen Glock, the complaint says. The charges submitted included felony fleeing to elude and felony possession of a stolen firearm. The office’s written rejection, attached as an exhibit, gives the reason as “The primary witness cannot be called as a witness.”
What he is asking for
Armstrong brings seven claims under the North Carolina Constitution. Three are against the state, the attorney general and the two legislative leaders, and attack the 2021 law itself. Four are against Reilly. The complaint says the challenge to the law as a whole would go to a three-judge panel in Wake County only after the rest of the case is resolved, and that Catawba County keeps everything else.
He asks a judge to:
- declare G.S. 17C-16 unconstitutional, both as written and as applied to him;
- order Reilly to withdraw the October 2025 notice in writing, and, if he does not within 30 days, have the clerk or someone else do it for him;
- order the state Justice Department to clear the notice from its files and tell anyone it notified;
- declare that Reilly’s March 24 letter had no legal force over Brookford’s officers;
- award more than $25,000 in damages from Reilly, set by a jury.
The complaint also asks the court to say that nothing in its ruling limits a prosecutor’s power to choose witnesses in an actual criminal case.
Armstrong is represented by Jeffrey S. Warren of Ellis & Winters in Raleigh. He lost the March 3 Republican primary for sheriff to Brown.
Catawba First News will report the defendants’ response when one is filed.
Source note
As of publication. A local news report surfaced the filed complaint. This story is based on the complaint itself, Armstrong v. State of North Carolina et al., Catawba County Superior Court file no. 26CV004493-170, filed Oct. 2, 2026, and its exhibits, including Reilly’s Oct. 9, 2025, and March 24, 2026, letters and the March 2026 mutual-aid letters from the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Hickory’s attorney. Statute: G.S. 17C-16. Reilly’s July statement: WBTV, July 20, 2026.
