CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Union County District Attorney's Office dismissed hundreds of cases in light of a prostitution investigation in neighboring Mecklenburg County involving a now-former North Carolina state trooper.
A judge sentenced Jeffrey Scott Salyer, 35, of Matthews, North Carolina, to probation Tuesday following his arrest for solicitation of prostitution.
Salyer was charged on Dec. 22, 2022. His charges included a felony charge of committing a crime against nature, along with two misdemeanor charges for patronizing a place of prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. Jail records show Salyer was arrested the next day. He resigned on Dec. 23, the day of his arrest.
Salyer pleaded no contest to misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution Tuesday. According to a spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office, it was revealed during his court appearance "Salyer solicited a sex worker online and agreed to meet her at a motel" where they had sexual contact "while Salyer was on duty and in uniform."
Union County Chief Assistant District Attorney Mary Beth Usher confirmed Wednesday, "as a result of Salyer's conduct," prosecutors dismissed roughly 50 implied consent cases, including DWIs and hundreds of traffic tickets, including speeding and registration violations.
"The mere fact that former NCSHP Trooper Jeffrey Salyer was charged with prostitution-related offenses and sexual assault does not necessarily require the dismissal of his cases; however, some of the specific underlying circumstances of Salyer's criminal conduct are relevant to his credibility," Usher said. "Based upon those circumstances, our Office made the determination that Salyer's credibility issues would substantially impair our ability to proceed with prosecutions where he is an essential witness."
When pressed for details about the "underlying circumstances" referenced, Usher said she could not provide additional details due to "the nature of that investigation."
"Please be advised that our Office did not dismiss the handful of fatality and serious injury cases in which Salyer was involved," she added. "We have evaluated those matters on a case-by-case basis and will do our best to prosecute them without using Salyer as a witness. I cannot further comment on those cases as they are still pending."
As for cases impacted out of Gaston County by Salyer's actions, Gaston County Assistant District Attorney Chadwick Smith said the county has dismissed "around 80 DWI cases in which Trooper Salyer was involved and around 250 other various traffic-related cases.”
Salyer was sentenced to 45 days in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center, but that sentence was suspended pending his successful completion of 12 months of supervised probation, according to the courts. Salyer must surrender his law enforcement certification to the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission as a special condition of his probation.
Judge Cecilia Oseguera ordered Salyer may be transferred to unsupervised probation after six months if he provides proof that he surrendered his certification and is in compliance with probation.
The North Carolina Department of Public Safety confirmed Salyer was a trooper with them beginning in August 2019.
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