NC sheriff pays settlement over disgruntled deputy accused of drug-planting
A small-town North Carolina sheriff avoided trial by settling a lawsuit filed by a man who was wrongfully arrested and alleged a deputy planted drugs on him. That lawsuit claims that former Anson County Deputy David Scott Burroughs did more than plant drugs — and that he didn’t act alone.
Ray Kifer Jr. had started dating Burroughs’ ex-girlfriend in 2018, and “it was well-known throughout the ACSO that Burroughs was distraught about that,” Kifer’s lawyers wrote in a news release announcing the settlement Thursday.
That made Burroughs’ tip to other deputies that drugs were in Kifer’s car “highly suspicious,” attorneys Sonya Pfeiffer and J.P. Lattimore wrote. Still, “despite their doubts about the truthfulness of the ‘tip,’” deputies arrested Kifer, the lawyers said.
Kifer’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, accuses the department of violating his Fourth and 14th Amendment rights by illegally arresting, detaining and interrogating him.
Kifer, in a statement provided by his lawyers Thursday, said he and his family “endured unimaginable hardship due to the actions of law enforcement officers who abused their power.”
“I had my life turned upside down by someone who was supposed to uphold the law. What followed was a battle not just for justice, but for my own well-being,” he wrote.
The lawsuit alleged Burroughs harassed the couple by showing up to events he wasn’t invited to, lurking outside their room and recording sounds of them in bed.
Burroughs was fired from the department and charged with making a false police report, obstructing justice, breaking and entering a motor vehicle and possession of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. He was convicted in 2024 of obstruction of justice and possessing heroin.
Kifer was released the same evening he was arrested, and all false charges against him were dropped.
The lawsuit originally named Burroughs, the sheriff’s department, the county and four other deputies. Burroughs and the county were later dropped from the lawsuit.
Anson County Sheriff Scott Howell settled in late March, according to court records. The statement from Kifer’s lawyers says Kifer agreed to an undisclosed monetary settlement and “a public acknowledgment of wrongdoing.”
On April 10, the sheriff’s office posted an announcement and apology on Facebook. Howell recounted the incident and apologizes to Kifer and his family “for all the hardships they have gone through during this ordeal.”
