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A mediator recently reported to a federal judge that a settlement had been reached between Sheriff Terry Johnson and two people who sued him in 2019, but that is not reflected in subsequent documents filed by each side in the case.
Aris Hines and Brandi Thomason, who formerly lived in Mebane but now lives in Texas, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Greensboro in May 2019, accusing Johnson and Deputy Randy Jones of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress stemming from the arrest of Hines and Thomason in 2016 and statements Johnson made linking them to human trafficking.
The case is set for trial later this month, but a mediation conference was held Jan. 18, and the mediator’s report filed on Jan. 20 said there was a “complete settlement.”
However, the settlement conference memos filed by attorneys for both sides on Jan. 31 restate their widely disparate positions.
The memo from Johnson’s attorney referred to the reported settlement in wording that makes it sound much more tenuous than “complete”
“In the event it is not the case that Plaintiffs intend to dismiss all claims against Defendants, Defendants respectfully submit the following position statement to the Court,” the memo said before detailing how all of Johnson’s actions and statements “were rooted in substantiated, well-sourced investigative facts.”
Hines and Thomason were arrested May 6, 2016, on charges of felony common law obstruction of justice and felony obtaining property by false pretenses. Johnson said at the time that the charges involved an Eastern Alamance High School student from overseas and “the smell of a human trafficking organization.”
“We’re looking into all aspects of human trafficking. Workforce, athletes, sex trafficking, whatever. We’re going to cover all the bases,” Johnson said at the time.
Other statements Johnson made included a suggestion “that Hines and Thomason may have committed similar crimes in Oklahoma and West Virginia” and may have been “scamming countless other families.”
Hines has said that he and Thomason took in just one disadvantaged student from Nigeria and that Johnson’s comments ruined their lives, subjecting them to public ridicule and harassment, unemployment and homelessness.
