[chris]

Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said Aug. 3, 2009, that he would suspend an off-duty deputy without pay after the deputy and a motorist traded dueling 911 calls following a roadside confrontation on Asheville's west side.

The dispute began about 7 p.m. on July 9, 2009, at the intersection of Patton Avenue and New Leicester Highway, according to the Sheriff's Office and the motorist, Julie Brown of Clyde. Brown said a jeep cut in front of her and she blew her horn. She said the driver, an off-duty undercover deputy, got out, pounded on her windows and tried to open her door. The deputy denied touching her vehicle and said Brown made obscene gestures at him, which she disputes.

Both called 911 within minutes. The deputy, who was driving his personal vehicle with his wife and child inside, told a dispatcher "she wants to act all stupid, so I want to show her how stupid she is when she finds out who I am." When told no patrol units were nearby, he said, "I'll just get her tag number down and pay her a visit." Brown told dispatchers she was afraid to stop and drove to a nearby restaurant parking lot, where Asheville police met her.

Asheville police did not file charges or a report, saying there were no witnesses to corroborate either account. They referred the matter to the Sheriff's Office as a personnel issue. Duncan said the deputy crossed a line once he began running the motorist's tag information through law enforcement systems, since at that point "he was acting as a police officer" and should have communicated professionally.

The Sheriff's Office Personnel Advisory Committee, a panel of five residents, unanimously backed Duncan's decision to suspend the deputy without pay for an unspecified period, order corrective training and place a written reprimand in his personnel file. Officials said a review of nearby security cameras and a search for witnesses turned up nothing to confirm either side's account of physical contact.

The deputy, a 12-year veteran of the department with no prior complaints on record, was not identified publicly. Brown said she welcomed the discipline but still believed police should have questioned the deputy more thoroughly at the scene. She said the case cost her a job at a Christian organization after the deputy's account of the confrontation, including his claim that she made obscene gestures, became public.