Questions remain around inmate Fletcher’s trusty status

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — If authorities could turn back time, Carter County jail inmate Billy Fletcher — whose escape is thought to be connected to the disappearance of still missing 61-year-old Victor Birchfield — probably wouldn’t have had trusty status allowing him to work outside the jail building with little supervision.

“Had Carter County known this individual was going to walk off, obviously they would not have made him a trusty,” Eric Stanton, a criminal justice instructor at Northeast State Community College, told News Channel 11 Friday.

Fletcher was legally eligible to be a work detail inmate, or trusty — Tennessee law only prevents registered sex offenders from such privileges — but the question of whether the 43-year-old with an assault conviction and other charges of violent crimes should have been is at the top of a number of people’s minds.

They include the woman whose father remains missing days after authorities discovered his vehicle more than 100 miles away in South Carolina. Tiffany Cole told News Channel 11 she isn’t convinced the department did an adequate job vetting Fletcher.

How Fletcher was allowed to be a trusty is “a question that the community needs to keep asking, because this did happen to my dad, but it could have been any one of us,” Cole said.

“Close family members to him that no longer have contact with him have told me, you know, ‘it’s not a question to us that he’s a dangerous person. We’re wondering ourselves how he was outside of the detention center.'”

As the Carter County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) put it in a news release Friday, less than 24 hours after Fletcher was captured in South Carolina, “some in the public have raised concerns regarding Fletcher’s participation in the inmate work program.”

The CCSO defended the decision to allow Fletcher trusty status, saying his criminal history had been vetted and he met the program’s eligibility requirements. But the news release’s own recounting of Fletcher’s criminal history is missing a 2020 assault charge and subsequent 2021 guilty plea, calling into question the accuracy of a claim by Jail Administrator Matt Patterson that “none of Fletcher’s convictions are classified by state law as ‘violent offenses.'”

Fletcher was captured in South Carolina Thursday, two weeks to the day after he walked away from a work detail at Carter County Detention Center. For days after his escape and Birchfield’s disappearance, the CCSO released no statements about a possible connection.

Even after Cole told News Channel 11 on June 27 that she was concerned about a connection because Birchfield had likely driven past the jail around the time Fletcher walked off, Sheriff Mike Fraley released a statement saying there was no information or evidence linking the two incidents. He added that the department was “investigating every lead we receive in both of these separate cases.”

CCSO leaders confirmed on July 1 that Birchfield’s June 19 disappearance and Fletcher’s escape were being investigated as related incidents. The search for Birchfield continues.

No ‘violent offenses?’

CCSO’s Friday release stated the department runs a complete criminal history check on potential trustys — inmates who work, sometimes inside the jail and sometimes outside and usually for “good time credit” that can reduce their time served by about half.

“Multiple people I’m sure looked at it and decided that he wouldn’t be an escape risk or something of that nature,” Northeast State’s Stanton said. “Unfortunately, he violated that trust.”

CCSO’s release said Fletcher was serving a three-year sentence after being convicted of violating probation for absconding from required appointments — something Stanton did say could raise questions.

“If he’s not showing up for his court appointed appointments, you know, why is he not then just going to walk away?” Stanton said.

Other criminal history CCSO mentioned included the attempted aggravated burglary conviction for which he was on probation when he violated, which occurred during a 2017 incident in Johnson County during which Fletcher was also charged with domestic assault and attempted kidnapping.

Fraley pointed to the fact that Fletcher’s assault and attempted kidnapping charges were dismissed, noting state law regarding jail work programs deals with convictions on one’s record.

The release stated Fletcher’s only convictions that showed up in a criminal history check were the attempted aggravated burglary and probation violation, a failure to appear in Carter County, and a conviction on a misdemeanor count of violating an order of protection.

But a check of Johnson County online court records showed that Fletcher was arrested in January 2020 and charged with aggravated assault for an incident in which a woman’s nose was broken. Those records show that charge was bound over to a grand jury and that on Sept. 30, 2021, Fletcher pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assault with bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor.

“None of Fletcher’s convictions are classified by state law as ‘violent offenses’ that would prohibit him from participating in an inmate work program,” Patterson said in the release.

Other than the prohibition on sex offenders, though, state law appears to be silent on what disqualifies an inmate from serving as a trusty.

‘It’s a black eye for them’

While he stressed repeatedly that CCSO had information the public doesn’t when they approved Fletcher’s trusty status, Stanton said he expects the department to do some soul searching in the wake of this incident.

“Once all this is done, they’ll absolutely look at their policy and procedures because, again, it’s a black eye for them,” Stanton said.

CCSO’s release said Fletcher, who was initially jailed in August 2023, had been in the inmate work program since Jan. 26 with no disciplinary incidents. Stanton said that’s pretty much the norm for a practice that is widespread.

“More times than not, these trustys go off without a hitch, it’s perfect,” Stanton said. “It’s good for them. Sometimes it allows them to be able to work off their time quicker, it allows the sheriff or whoever is over that that facility to be able to use inmate labor to save taxpayers money, which is a great thing.”

Stanton added that no inmate, no matter how good their behavior, has any right to be granted trusty status, but that it is “absolutely” at each department’s discretion. That would include how to weigh situations in which a person was charged but not ultimately convicted.

“The inmate applies and then the committee looks and makes a decision,” Stanton said. “If the committee decides this person should not be a trusty, some departments allow that trusty or that individual to appeal that decision, but it will probably go before the same board.”

Ultimately, he said, “it’s an honor to be able to get out of sitting in that cell 23 hours a day … it’s an absolute privilege.”

Tiffany Cole said the fact that Billy Fletcher was deemed worthy of being a trusty doesn’t square with what she heard from his own estranged family members.

“That’s hard to hear,” she said. “I’m not a person that typically feels anger. That’s not an emotion I’m very familiar with. But at this point, if that anger is what fuels me through this, to find my dad, and then so be it.”

Cole said if she can be a change agent when it comes to policies or practices surrounding trusty programs, that would provide her some satisfaction.

“I think regardless of the outcome with my dad, of course we hope he comes home alive and well and can continue this life with us … I will see the changes made if I can help, but I will not allow this to happen to anyone else.”

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