NC court overturns sex-crime conviction of former Johnston County politician

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has overturned a felony conviction of a former Johnston County commissioner accused of sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old.

The three-judge panel agreed that Richard Braswell’s 2024 indecent liberties with a child conviction should be sent back to the Johnston County court for a possible retrial.

Appellate Judge Jeffery Carpenter wrote in the opinion that he agreed with Braswell’s legal team, which argued a judicial error during Braswell’s criminal trial wrongly prejudiced the jury against Braswell. Specifically, the decision said Superior Court Judge W. Taylor Brown erred when he allowed prosecutors to present witnesses intended bolster the credibility of the girl who accused Braswell.

The appeals court ruling follows Braswell settling a civil lawsuit for an undisclosed amount filed on behalf of the girl, a longtime family friend.

In August 2025, the girl’s guardian filed a civil lawsuit against Braswell, accusing him of intentional infliction of emotional distress. Braswell denied the allegations but settled the lawsuit within a month to avoid legal expenses, according to court documents.

Braswell was reelected after he was charged in June 2022 but resigned in 2024 after a jury found him guilty. He was sent to prison for more than two years, and required to register as a sex offender.

Braswell remains at the Carteret County Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison in Newport, according to the state Department of Adult Correction. He is projected to be released on June 3.

Appeals court overturns conviction

According to the Court of Appeals’ decision, the evidence in the case showed that the girl, assigned the alias of Penny in court documents, and her brother grew up living with their grandparents as both their parents struggled with substance abuse issues.

Their mother had been incarcerated repeatedly, and their father died by suicide in 2018.

Braswell and his wife were like “second parents” to Penny and her brother, taking them to church and on vacations, states the appeal decision, which outlines some of the evidence in the case. Some appeals documents have been sealed from public view.

On occasion, Braswell would give Penny and his daughter calf massages after cheerleading events, the decision states. And on one occasion, Braswell had massaged Penny’s thighs a couple of times at his beach house.

When Penny was about 12, she and her brother worked for Braswell at his RV park, the documents say. On April 18, 2022, Braswell sent her brother to do landscaping and called Penny into a conference room alone and began massaging her legs and thighs, Penny contends, according to court documents.

She said he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants and touched her before Penny said she had to go to the bathroom and left the room, court documents state.

Penny didn’t tell anyone about the touching until she shared it with multiple people during a birthday party at the Braswells’ house on June 5, 2022, the decision states. The next day she reported Braswell’s touching to the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office. Braswell denied touching the youth inappropriately, court documents state.

During Braswell’s criminal trial, his attorney challenged Penny’s credibility and pointed out inconsistencies in her court testimony, interviews, and a written narrative she provided to police. The attorney also questioned whether Penny was upset with Braswell after he reported that Penny’s mother used drugs and violated her probation, court documents state.

Following that line of questioning, the judge allowed prosecutors to introduce five witnesses to the jury, including Braswell’s wife and daughter, to testify on Penny’s “good character for truthfulness.”

In the appeal, Braswell’s attorney successfully argued that the judge erred when he allowed those witnesses. While the defense attacked Penny’s credibility and motives behind the statements, it didn’t make her out to be a liar, the lawyer argued.

The News & Observer reached out to attorneys representing the state, the Johnston County district attorney and Braswell. None responded to questions about next steps in the case.

Context for the ruling

Kellie Mannette, a longtime defense attorney who practices across the state, wasn’t surprised by the Court of Appeals’ decision, which she said aligns with the current court practices and guidelines.

Character witnesses can be very persuasive to juries and are only allowed under specific circumstances, Mannette said.

In this case, Braswell’s attorneys say they were trying to discredit Penny by challenging her inconsistent statements, Mannette pointed out. They are contending that Penny is lying about that one instance, not that she is generally known as a liar.

Since the defense focused on that one incident and not her truthfulness, in general, prosecutors shouldn’t have been able to have witnesses talk about her general truthfulness, the decision said.

The attorney general’s office could ask the Supreme Court to review the appeal’s court decision and pause any actions at the local level, which could freeze the case for months or years, Mannette said.

Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.

This story was originally published January 27, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "NC court overturns sex-crime conviction of former Johnston County politician."