He almost became Mecklenburg’s sheriff. Now, Nick Mackey faces charges in 2 states.
For former state legislator Nick Mackey, the new year kicks off with new cases of potential legal and professional peril — including harassment allegations in two states involving two different women.
In 2007, Mackey skyrocketed to prominence after winning a Democratic Party vote for Mecklenburg sheriff — a vote that was quickly overturned. He was later elected to one term in the N.C. legislature.
But for more than a decade, Mackey’s public life and legal career have been dogged by allegations of misconduct, allegations that will carry over into 2020.
In separate cases in North Carolina and Tennessee, Mackey is charged by his estranged wife and her family of using a firearm to vandalize their cars and other property.
Over a three-week period next month, the 52-year-old faces criminal charges in Chattanooga, Tenn., Rockingham and Mecklenburg County, documents show.
Those include a Jan. 7 hearing in Hamilton County, Tenn., where Mackey, 52, has been charged with felony counts of vandalism/malicious mischief and aggravated assault, along with an additional count of reckless endangerment. He was arrested Dec. 13 in Chattanooga and released after posting $21,000 in bonds.
On Monday, a man who answered a call to Mackey’s listed phone number hung up after an Observer reporter introduced himself.
Stormy divorce
On Dec. 12, U.S. marshals in Charlotte took Mackey into custody on a Tennessee fugitive-extradition warrant in which Mackey, a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, was described as “armed and dangerous.” He was released later that day from the Mecklenburg County Jail.
Court records indicate that the original Tennessee complaint was filed by Mackey’s estranged wife, Yvette Stewart, who now lives in Chattanooga. She told the Observer on Monday that in June, Mackey fired gunshots into her car and slashed all four of her tires. The couple, who married in September 2016, have been separated a year. Stewart said she filed for divorce this month.
On Jan. 8, the day after he is to appear in Tennessee, Mackey is scheduled to go on trial in Caswell County — home to Stewart’s parents. There, Mackey faces four counts of injury to personal property, records show.
Public records indicate the offenses also occurred in June. According to Stewart, Mackey damaged cars belonging to her father and her, along with her parent’s home. Once again, she said, a firearm was involved.
Mackey also has a Jan. 28 hearing in Mecklenburg County in connection with misdemeanor complaints of cyberstalking and harassing phone calls. According to court documents, police say Mackey made hundreds of calls and sent dozens of texts and emails in 2018-19 to a Charlotte woman — not his wife — with the purpose of “annoying, threatening, terrifying, harassing and embarrassing” her.
Meanwhile, Mackey’s legal career, already derailed by the ongoing 2016 suspension of his law license, appears to be in even deeper jeopardy with a new round of misconduct allegations by the N.C. State Bar.
They include charges that he accepted an excessive fee from a client in 2015-16 that he failed to represent. Mackey also is accused of continuing to practice law — and collecting a $2,000 fee — with a suspended license, then lying about it to the bar. The bar also alleges that Mackey failed to cooperate with the investigation into his professional conduct.
A disciplinary hearing has not been scheduled.
Special Democratic election
Mackey and his public career have been tied to controversy for 15 years.
He left CMPD in 2003 while being investigated for falsifying hours. He filed for bankruptcy in 2005, but rebounded two years later to win a special Democratic Party election for Mecklenburg sheriff. His surprise victory came two days after a former client filed a complaint against Mackey with the state bar and four days before he was served with a criminal summons for possible contempt of court for not showing up for a case.
In February 2008, the state Democratic Party, citing precinct irregularities, voided Mackey’s win, and Mecklenburg commissioners voted to give the sheriff’s job to Chipp Bailey.
Eight months later, Mackey was elected to the state legislature. He sought reelection in 2010. But the day before the primary, the bar suspended his law license for three years for “a pattern of misconduct.” Mackey was soundly beaten in the Democratic primary.
In 2016, a federal appeals court threw out the conspiracy and racketeering convictions of one of Mackey’s clients after finding that the attorney had regularly slept at the defense table during the three-week trial.
