Matthews report on police ‘rats’ solves one controversy, stokes second in NC town
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Parker Poe investigation clears Mayor Higdon of using term 'rats' in closed session.
- Report finds commissioner likely leaked closed-session details, citing Hoover and Tofano.
- Report urges confidentiality policy, ethics revisions and public release of evidence.
A new report has cleared Matthews Mayor John Higdon of ever calling police officers “rats,” but it’s sparked fresh turmoil on the town board, with one commissioner now accusing the town attorney of having political bias.
The investigation was conducted after a resident confronted Higdon at an event claiming he’d used the word “rats” during a closed-door discussion about a police use-of-force case. But a 19-page report by the Parker Poe law firm found no evidence Higdon said it. Instead, investigators concluded it was “significantly more likely than not” that someone inside the closed session improperly shared details from the meeting.
The report names Mayor Pro Tem Gina Hoover and Commissioner Mark Tofano as the most likely sources, noting that both declined to sit for sworn interviews and failed to respond to document requests. Leaking most closed-session discussions is not a crime under North Carolina law, unless the leak involves protected personnel information. Still, the report states, it could undermine public trust.
The resident claimed the mayor made the remark during an April 15, 2024 closed session about the town’s lawsuit with WBTV, a case tied to a police use-of-force incident that had already drawn public attention. WBTV filed a lawsuit against the town, claiming officials withheld records and video related to a 2021 incident in which a Matthews police sergeant choked a handcuffed Black man during an arrest.
Hoover told The Charlotte Observer the investigation was a “politically motivated hit job,” against her and Tofano. She said the mayor and other commissioners have a “deep hate” for them. Hoover said she did not sit for interviews because they were conducted differently than agreed upon when she voted for the investigation. She denied leaking any information from the April closed session.
“This is borderline slander,” Hoover said. “Our town attorney has just taken from what the other four have said and put it in his little report to put it how he needs to put it, to make it look like, ‘oh yeah, they could have done it.’ There’s no proof, no evidence, nothing.”
Hoover declined to explain the discrepancy between what was agreed upon for the investigation and how it was conducted, since the discussion occurred in a closed session. She is seeking legal counsel to potentially take action against Town Attorney Daniel Peterson who helped conduct the investigation, saying she wasn’t given due process and that he may have had a conflict of interest.
Tofano also told the Observer he was not responsible for any leak. He said he supports Hoover’s decision to seek legal counsel, and that if that board wanted an impartial investigation, it should have hired someone other than the board’s own attorney. He, like Hoover, said the investigation was politically motivated.
Tofano said he did not sit for any interviews because the board agree to answer a few brief questions with the attorney — not sit under oath with a stenographer.
“It was very obvious what was trying to be trying to take place here. I was not going to be part of that,” he said. “It was already a totally fictitious investigation, and I was not going to be subjected to that kind of scrutiny.”
Investigation into closed session leak
The investigation began after a June 2025 encounter where the resident, identified in the report only as “person 1,” accused the mayor of saying that former Town Manager Becky Hawke “got rid of all the rats” in the police department. Higdon denied ever using that language and told the man he wouldn’t discuss what was said in private, according to the report.
“I have no idea where the rat comment came from, but I have made the comment several times at Matthews town hall that that’s not something that’s normally in my vernacular, not a kind of word that I ever recall saying about anything,” Higdon told the Observer. “I stand by the report and hope the public will take the time to read it.”
Weeks later, the same resident testified at an administrative hearing that he talked about a closed session with someone who was in it, but refused to identify the source, according to the report. That statement prompted the Matthews Board of Commissioners to vote unanimously to authorize an internal investigation into whether anyone had breached confidentiality.
Attorneys reviewed emails, texts, social media posts and closed session minutes and interviewed current and former officials, the report states.
Four commissioners – Renee Garner, Ken McCool, John Urban, Leon Threatt – along with Higdon, Town Clerk Lori Canapinno and former manager Hawke gave sworn interviews that investigators described as consistent and credible. Hawke has since gone on to take a job as Wilmington’s city manager.
Investigators focused on Hoover and Tofano after noting the resident described the closed session as being about a “choking” incident, language that appears only in questions asked by Hoover and Tofano during that meeting, according to the minutes. That overlap, the report says, suggests the information likely came from one of them.
A YouTube video posted by the resident in June shows a brief conversation between him and Tofano. In the video they discuss police conduct and the resident calls Higdon a “liar.” Tofano said he’s “not going to disagree,” according to the report. Investigators described the exchange as “non-adversarial” and said Tofano’s refusal to sit for a sworn interview or provide documents made it impossible to rule him out as the source of the leak.
In Hoover’s case, the report cites earlier examples of her allegedly sharing confidential information, including forwarding a town attorney’s litigation memo to the opposing side in a 2023 lawsuit and emailing a WBTV reporter about a closed session while that case was active. Combined with her refusal to participate, investigators said those actions meant she also could not be excluded.
The report stops short of naming a single culprit, but it concludes that the leak “undermined public confidence in the Board’s ability to conduct valid closed-session business” and violated the board’s fiduciary duty to taxpayers.
To prevent future problems, investigators recommend adopting a closed-session confidentiality policy, strengthening the code of ethics, beginning and ending each private meeting with a confidentiality reminder, and releasing the report and supporting evidence to the public.
