Woman arrested for flashing rear end at Sheriff’s Office after previous charges overturned

Published 12:00 am Sunday, October 17, 2021

SALISBURY — A Spencer woman was arrested Thursday for flashing her rear end to Rowan Sheriff’s Office employees months after the N.C. Court of Appeals overturned convictions on two criminal charges.

Suwanda Evette Humphreys was charged with disorderly conduct after an incident where she was told to leave the lobby of Rowan Sheriff’s Office or face arrest, agreed to leave after deputies placed one cuff on her wrist and came back to the front door of the lobby. When she came back, Humphreys allegedly yelled profanities, turned her back to the door, pulled her pants down and showed her naked rear end, a Sheriff’s Office incident report stated.

The report states Humphreys initially was asked to leave the lobby after some yelling. Clerical staff asked a deputy if he could help remove Humphreys from the lobby, a report states.

The most recent charge comes several months after the N.C. Court of Appeals overturned convictions for disorderly conduct and resisting an officer. The court in December said substantial evidence wasn’t presented in Rowan County Superior Court that Humphreys committed the crimes.

“Here, the only evidence of defendants interference with the operation of a school and its students was a group of students hearing her use profanity on their way to class,” the Appeals Court wrote about the disorderly conduct charge.

About the resisting arrest charge, the court wrote, “There is insufficient evidence defendant did anything more than merely remonstrate. Even if her actions exceeded remonstration, there is insufficient evidence defendant acted willfully in purposeful or deliberate violation of the law as she reasonably believed she had the right to act as she did in observing the officers and protesting what she perceived as an unlawful search.”

The overturned conviction is tied to a K-9 walkthrough of East Rowan High School’s parking lot requested by School Resource Officer Tommy Cato. During the walkthrough, the K-9 gave an indication that drugs could be in a car owned by Humphreys and driven by her daughter.

Court documents state Humphreys was belligerent when she arrived at the school. She agreed to a search after being told it would be towed and that deputies would obtain a warrant if she did not OK the search. She was accused of not complying with requests to back up from deputies as they were searching the car or to stand in Cato’s field of view.

Court documents state she told a group of students walking through the parking lot to their weightlifting class, “(Y)ou all about to see a black woman, an unarmed black woman, get shot.”

In addition to the case in state court, Humphreys is suing the Rowan-Salisbury Schools Board of Education and Cato in federal court. The court for the Middle District of North Carolina on Friday appointed a mediator to settle the case.