Former Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran continues to fall deeper into legal trouble. Two weeks ago, he was arrested again and charged with second-degree forcible rape according to filings in Swain Superior Court.
The embattled sheriff left office last month after being arrested and charged in both North Carolina and tribal court for committing sex crimes against a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Cochran faced state criminal charges of sexual battery, assault on a female, solicitation of prostitution and felonious restraint. He was indicted in Swain Superior Court on July 21.
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The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians also charged Cochran with violations of the Cherokee Code for the same assault — one count of abusive sexual contact and two counts of oppression in office. The tribe can charge non-Indian perpetrators with certain crimes as authorized by the Violence Against Women Act in 2022.
The most comprehensive account of the investigation leading up to Cochran’s first arrest was included in District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch’s petition to remove Cochran from office, which was voluntarily rescinded after Cochran announced his retirement on July 3.
According to that complaint, a Cherokee woman reported to the police on June 22 that Cochran had sexually assaulted her and attempted to pay her for oral sex inside his own police vehicle. That prompted an investigation involving state and federal law enforcement. On June 23, a Cherokee Indian Police officer pulled over Cochran inside the Qualla Boundary and found him with another woman (not Cherokee) who later told investigators that she had been similarly assaulted.
Both women, according to the court filings, were picked up by Cochran on the side of the road under the guise of him offering them a ride.
Rape added to Cochran’s list of charges
The second degree rape charge involves a third woman not mentioned in previous court filings. She does not appear to be Cherokee, and no additional charges have been filed against Cochran in tribal court.
As of now, the details of this latest offense are sparse.
Cochran was arrested again on July 21 after being indicted on the rape charge — the same day that he was indicted for the four other charges brought against him. He was released on a $50,000 bond under the conditions that he would not leave the state, not contact the rape victim and not commit any more crimes.
All of the alleged assaults Cochran is accused of occurred in June of this year, and all three victims have previous arrest records with the Swain County Sheriff’s Office during the time that Cochran led the department.
Welch’s office declined to comment on whether they suspect that more women have been victimized by Cochran, but said that possible victims should contact the State Bureau of Investigation.
Ex-sheriff’s son involved in curious traffic stop
Travis Cochran, a trooper with the State Highway Patrol and son of the former sheriff, pulled over one of Curtis Cochran’s alleged victims on July 18 according to a publicly available court filing.
The younger Cochran assessed the woman a traffic violation for not wearing her seatbelt while she was a passenger and wrote in the citation that there were “no problems” during the interaction.
The woman was named in the petition for removal as the non-Cherokee woman found in Cochran’s vehicle on June 23. He has not so far been charged in the alleged assault on her, but she was a witness in the investigation leading up to his arrest.
Unlike the other two named victims, there is no court order barring Cochran from contacting this woman. However, the incident does raise questions related to conflict of interests or potential witness tampering when it comes to Cochran’s criminal case.
The district attorney’s office declined to comment on the matter, stating that they did not comment on pending cases. Neither the State Highway Patrol nor Curtis Cochran, through his attorney, responded to inquiries from CPP prior to the publication of this article.
Curtis Cochran’s next hearing for the state criminal charges is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Sept. 24 at the Swain County Courthouse in Bryson City. He is set to make his next appearance in Tribal Court in Cherokee at 9 a.m. on Sept. 29.
Clarification: The woman charged for a seatbelt violation was a passenger at the time of the traffic stop. This information came to the attention of Carolina Public Press after initial publication of the article, which has been updated to reflect the new detail.
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