More than 30 criminal cases dismissed for 'credibility issues'

CLOVIS — More than 30 criminal cases have been dismissed due to “serious credibility issues” for their association with a fired Curry County sheriff’s deputy, according to District Attorney Andrea Reeb.

Many of the cases “were not complicated or serious matters,” Reeb said, since the deputy had only been in the position for about nine months before leaving. They were “mainly possession cases” and none involving serious injury, although one felony DWI case still came as a significant loss to prosecutors.

Brandon Nolen was terminated from county employment in April and arrested last week, charged with perjury, tampering with public records and possession of a controlled substance, all felonies. Investigators allege Nolen took about four grams of methamphetamine seized during a March 20 traffic stop and kept it for personal use, while claiming in sworn court documents to have placed it in evidence.

“We had to clean our backyard before we could go forward and we certainly never want to take any case to court where there is even an appearance of a taint to the evidence,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover, who took point on inventorying the cases that might have been compromised. “Our theory was that it was better that these cases all be dismissed.”

“We were very fortunate in that there were not any victim cases where he was directly involved and so most of the cases had to do with controlled substances or vehicle stops that he was involved in, which is consistent with a new deputy on the street,” Stover said.

Reeb said she “really had a hard time” dismissing the felony DWI, but it was still in the “best interest of the integrity of the office to be across the board.”

“If (Nolen) was the fourth officer on scene and his name was mentioned on the report, it’s gone,” she said.

Even if Nolen’s role in a given case seemed trivial, Reeb said “it just wasn’t really fair” to dismiss some cases involving him but not others.

Stover estimated 34 cases have been dismissed since late March, with the possibility of others still coming up due to the time delay between obtaining a warrant and receiving a new case.

Nolen’s case is scheduled for a preliminary examination in court July 27. His lawyer Michael Garrett did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon. Nolen could not be reached for comment.