Depending on how a North Carolina court rules, a Wrightsville Beach police officer could be offered back his former job with the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
In December 2015, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the North Carolina Highway Patrol wasn’t forced to terminate trooper Thomas Wetherington from the department after he admitted to lying to a superior. Wetherington, who was fired from the force in 2009, joined the Wrightsville Beach Police Department in November 2015 as one of several new hires brought on last fall to fortify a police force that was understaffed during the peak summer season.
Police Chief Dan House said the December ruling effectively ended Wetherington’s challenge, as a lower court will now determine how to resolve the case. That could include back pay, damages or even an offer to return to highway patrol.
“I think he’s pretty soured on the highway patrol,” House said. “The question is what the state is going to pay him.”
Efforts by Lumina News to reach Wetherington were unsuccessful. House said Wetherington was on a training assignment this week.
Wetherington was terminated from the highway patrol after a unique case that drew some national media attention. The court documents state Wetherington was fired after he lied to his superiors about how he lost his hat. While Wetherington said it was crushed by a truck on the highway, it was actually found by a motorist and returned to the highway patrol office, which led his superiors to raise questions about his original report.
Once Wetherington admitted to being untruthful about the original story, the highway patrol argued in court that it had no choice but to fire Wetherington for violation of the code of conduct.
The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the highway patrol wasn’t obligated to terminate Wetherington and could have evaluated other disciplinary measures. While lower courts ruled that the firing was unjust, the state supreme court did not take a position on the termination, only sending it back to a lower court for reconsideration.
House said that Wetherington was open about the incident during the hiring process, when at that point the case was still being considered by the supreme court. House said the incident prompted the department to “dig extra hard” into Wetherington’s background, but the background investigation showed no incidents that raised concerns.
Since his dismissal from the North Carolina Highway Patrol, Wetherington has worked in other police departments, House said, including the small force in Bethel, North Carolina. Background investigations included reviews of Wetherington’s internal affairs profile.
Candidates for the job are also reviewed by a three-member panel, which for Wetherington included Lt. Valerie Blanton, Lt. Jason Bishop and former Captain Paul Burdette, who has since left to become the police chief in Beaufort, North Carolina.
In addition to the interviews and background checks, candidates for the Wrightsville Beach Police Department are also put through an “emotional intelligence” test that is similar to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test, which helps evaluate a candidate’s ability to react with the public, House said.
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