A jury trial for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ prosecution of former Swain County sheriff Curtis Cochran won’t be scheduled until at least this summer, according to the latest tribal court filings.
Cochran, 73, had been set to appear in tribal court in Cherokee on Tuesday, Feb. 17. However, the judge presiding over the case, the tribal prosecutor and Cochran’s attorney agreed over email to continue the pre-trial hearing to June 8, assistant clerk Keanu Crowe told Carolina Public Press.
In the motion for continuation filed Tuesday morning, defense attorney Jack Stewart cited Cochran’s “age and poor health” as reasoning for him not to appear Tuesday.
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Cochran was arrested by Cherokee, state and federal authorities last year for sex crimes he’s alleged to have committed against multiple women in his police vehicle. District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch filed a legal petition to remove him as sheriff, a position he had held since 2005, but Cochran abruptly announced his retirement before a judge could rule on the matter.
Notably, Cochran is facing concurrent prosecutions by the state of North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which is considered its own sovereign entity and has the legal authority to prosecute non-Indians for certain violent crimes committed on native lands.
Double jeopardy isn’t an issue in this situation because the criminal charges originate from two different sovereigns.
Cochran has pled not guilty to four violations of the Cherokee Code and five state criminal charges, including second degree forcible rape. Pre-trial proceedings in both cases are ongoing. Cochran had hearings in Swain Superior Court pushed back twice already, and his next scheduled appearance there is April 29.
It’s not unsurprising for a case with this level of novelty and jurisdictional complexity to undergo a long wait before going to trial — or, in this case, trials.
Until now, the little information available about the legal battle facing Cochran has come from Welch’s petition for removal, the arrest warrants and arraignment documents. However, Stewart’s references to Cochran’s advanced age and potential health issues in his most recent motion for continuance could offer a first glimpse into the defense’s strategy for the tribal charges.
As for the state criminal charges, Cochran appeared in person at Swain County Superior Court in September and December, where his case was continued to a later date both times.
The reason for the most recent rescheduling was “receipt of new information,” the Smoky Mountain Times reported. No public records with more detail of those continuances exist because they were granted in open court and not through a court filing, the Swain clerk of court said.
Both Welch and Michael McConnell, attorney general of the Eastern Band, declined to comment on their respective prosecutions of Cochran.
Pressure on sheriffs in NC’s far west
Cochran isn’t the only sheriff in the 43rd prosecutorial district to have lost his job, at least in part, because of actions of the district attorney’s office.
On Jan. 29, Welch filed a petition for the removal of Graham County Sheriff Brad Hoxit for improper involvement in a criminal investigation to which the sheriff had a conflict of interest.
According to the petition for removal, Hoxit sought search warrants for Graham County Commissioner Jacob Nelms and asked for the help of Department of Insurance special investigators all while having a secret romantic relationship with Nelms’ now ex-wife.
Hoxit failed to disclose that relationship to the district attorney’s office when seeking Welch’s help in prosecuting Nelms, the petition stated. One of Hoxit’s deputies had previously obtained warrants in Buncombe County to place trackers on Nelms’ car.
It wasn’t until after that meeting that Welch became aware of the affair between Hoxit and Nelms’ ex-wife.
He continued to have future meetings with Welch to talk about the criminal investigation into Nelms, making several “concerning” statements, despite being told repeatedly not to involve himself, the petition said.
“Defendant’s never ceasing obsession surrounding Jacob Nelms, failure to stay out of the investigation, attempting to influence state law enforcement agencies, being dishonest about what the undersigned District Attorney said, obtaining search warrants for car trackers and cell phones of Jacob Nelms without disclosing the romantic conflict, is inherently unfair and appears to be targeted,” Welch wrote in the petition.
Superior court judge Tessa Sellers temporarily suspended Hoxit from office until a hearing and final determination could be made on the petition for his removal.
Hoxit seems poised to fight the removal proceedings. He secured a continuance on the final hearing, originally scheduled for Friday, Feb. 20, so that he could have more time to prepare a defense.
The sheriff’s office in neighboring Cherokee County has been similarly upended.
Just a day before Welch filed the petition to remove Hoxit from office, she sent a letter to Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith requesting his resignation because of “continuous negligence.”
That letter said that for years her office had received complaints from citizens about Smith’s administration of the sheriff’s office. Specific incidents Welch cited were the 2022 shooting of an unarmed man who later sued the department, as well as the fatal shooting of a Cherokee County detention officer by a federal inmate in 2025.
“The continuous negligence has resulted in the loss of confidence, trust, and respect for the office of Sheriff by a significant number of the residents of Cherokee County and the district,” Welch wrote.
“My hope is that you will recognize the harm that is being done and that you will make the decision to resign,” she continued.
Welch ended the letter by implying that if Smith didn’t resign, she would file a petition for his removal from office, bringing “all the evidence and proof into the public record.”
Smith heeded the warning, announcing on his re-election campaign’s Facebook page that he was suspending his campaign and retiring effective Feb. 6.
UNC School of Government professor James Markham said a situation like this, where multiple sheriffs in the same prosecutorial district have had removal proceedings or threats of removal brought against them by the district attorney, is rare.
“That said, each case stands on its own facts, and from what has been reported publicly, these appear to involve separate and unrelated circumstances that happened within a similar timeframe,” he added in an email to CPP.
“Under North Carolina law, a district attorney has statutory authority to initiate removal proceedings against a sheriff for misconduct in office. That authority serves as an important accountability mechanism, particularly given the scope of a sheriff’s responsibilities, which include law enforcement, management of the county jail, and courthouse security.”
The future of all three of those sheriff’s offices is up in the air with elections later this year. Voters will soon head to the polls to vote in the primary elections where candidates have lined up to replace the embattled predecessors.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated after initial publication to include new information that became available.
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