From Staff Reports

The Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office should be held responsible for serving as enablers in the rape of a woman in a case that it is now claiming credit for having won in a jury trial that resulted in a second-degree rape conviction of the defendant, according to local FOP President Rondell Lance.

Lance’s criticisms were in response to a Zoom (virtual) presentation that Buncombe DA Todd Williams gave to the Council of Business Owners on Oct. 22. (That story begins on Page A1 of this edition). 

As the local FOP leader, Lance represents about 250 area law enforcement officers. While he is now retired, he worked in law enforcement for 26-1/2 years.

In an Oct. 25 interview with the Daily Planet, Lance said of the convicted rapist, “Ronald Eugene Patton shouldn’t even have been on the street. 

“The reason he committed that crime is because the last time the DA had Patton in court, they worked a plea deal with the judge. They (the DA’s office) lied to the judge that the officers were in agreement with the deal, when they weren’t. 

“And then he (Patton) came back to commit a crime (a rape), again. He (Patton) qualified as a ‘habitual offender’ back then. This incident should never have happened.”

Lance added, “For Williams to brag (to CIBO on Oct. 22) that he did a good job with this case is hypocritical. He should have done that (battled for truth and justice) in 2018 — and then the woman would not have been sexually assaulted.”

After a pause, he asserted, “That sexual assault is all ‘on’ the DA’s office for their failure to do their job.”

To that end, Lance cited a Feb. 23, 2018 story by Asheville television station WLOS (News 13), noting to the Daily Planet, “I was ‘in the news’ then, saying that Patton would commit another crime after this plea deal.”

Following is the text of the News 13 story referenced by Lance:

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) in Asheville says a dangerous criminal is back on the streets thanks to a plea deal from the Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office.

Rondell Lance, FOP president, says Ronald Patton is a career criminal in Asheville.

“From all the information I have, he’s on the streets,” Lance said of Patton. “He’s back out in the public.”

The case in question involves Asheville Police Officers Matthew Metcalf and Christopher Goodwin. In 2016 police statements, officers say Patton attacked Metcalf with a stun gun.

“He’d taken the stun gun, sticking it to his forehead, kept pressing it, pressing it, pressing it,” Lance said of the incident.

“I could hear Officer Metcalf screaming in pain while Patton was dive stunning him,” Metcalf’s partner, Christopher Goodwin, said in a statement. “I truly believe that if I let him, Patton would have killed Officer Metcalf and me.”

Meanwhile, to the Daily Planet, Lance also voiced other criticisms of Williams’ Oct. 22 CIBO presentation, noting, that, in general, “He’s saying, ‘It’s not my fault. It’s the police’s fault and whatever they did in Missouri.’”

In truth, at least according to Lance, “It has nothing to do with George Floyd. It’s idiotic. It’s ‘on’ the DA office — he needs to quit pushing off problems on others. He’s trying to blame everything and everyone, but himself, for not being an effective DA.”

As for Williams’ assertion that the APD has taken on what has become a “catch and release” practice in patroling, Lance vehemently disagreed, saying “catch and release” is not the APD’s intent, but rather the result of the actions by the magistrate’s and DA’s offices.

“One of the biggest reasons they’re leaving (the APD) is because of the DA office’s’” laxness on crime. 

“During ‘the protest time’ (in 2020), they (the DA’s office) dismissed so many charges” that it disgusted “the serious men and women in local law enforcement,” Lance said.