HAMLET — One week after promising to finally disclose the reasons for the firing of the former police chief, leaders have released a statement.
The letter from the city of Hamlet, sent to the media by City Attorney T.C. Morphis via email at 4:42 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, starts off by stating that then-chief Dennis Brown had applied for the city manager position to succeed Matthew Christian — but didn’t get the job.
“Within weeks of beginning as the New Hamlet Manager, John Terziu assured Mr. Brown of his support, but Mr. Brown openly stated that he believed he should have been chosen as City Manager and that Major Hudson Chitwood should have been promoted to Police Chief,” the statement reads. “Mr. Brown also said that he was offended by Terziu’s hiring, citing what he described as a “lack of experience in local government” and noting his own 20-plus years of service in the field.”
The city says Terziu received complaints from “nearly every” department director regarding “long-standing behavior” of both Brown and Chitwood.
“Despite these warnings, Mr. Terziu encouraged both men to focus on rebuilding bridges rather than further dividing the organization,” the statement reads.
According to the city, the “tension was documented” in an April 22 letter from Terziu to the city council — “making clear that concerns about Mr. Brown and Mr. Chitwood were raised well before the sexual harassment allegation had been made” in July.
Terziu reportedly submitted his resignation in May, believing that “ a coordinated campaign was underway to discredit him.”
“The Hamlet City Council unanimously rejected the resignation and renegotiated Mr. Terziu’s contract to strengthen protections against defamation and personal attacks,” the statement reads. “The Council took this action because they believed Mr. Terziu’s character was sound and that he was and is the right leader to restore stability in Hamlet.”
Regarding the sexual harassment allegation, the city says that Chitwood reported the alleged incident — which reportedly occured on July 11 — to Brown on July 18.
The city says that Brown then reported the allegation to Morphis, and that Terziu “immediately authorized the Attorney to conduct an investigation.”
“The City Attorney answers directly to the City Council and does not work for the Manager,” the statement reads. “If the City Attorney found any evidence of wrongdoing, he would report it immediately and directly to Council. The City Attorney reviewed the allegation independently, interviewed relevant parties, and preliminarily concluded that there is no basis for further action.”
Rachel Van Camp, attorney for Brown, told the RO in a Sept. 25 statement that the female officer who reportedly made the allegation confirmed on Sept. 24 that no one, including Morphis, had interviewed her about the complaint against Terziu.
“Simply put,” Van Camp said, “it appears that the female police officer was purposefully excluded from this supposed ‘investigation.’
“If the City of Hamlet truly ‘takes all allegations [of sexual harassment] seriously’ as the city attorney contends in his statement, then they would have required that any investigation of the sexual harassment complaint be conducted by an independent third-party, and that any investigation include an interview of the actual sexual harassment victim,” Van Camp continued. “The City instead chose to pursue a preliminary investigation internally, and without even speaking to the victim, reached the conclusion that her ‘allegation is completely unsubstantiated.’”
In the Oct. 2 statement, the city says Morphis “was forced to provide a preliminary report” on Sept. 20, before interviewing the employee “because Mr. Brown’s attorneys issued a false and defamatory public statement regarding the matter” on Sept. 19.
The employee was reportedly interviewed by Morphis on Sept. 26 and that Morphis is “preparing to interview at least one additional employee.”
“Should any new evidence come to light, the City Attorney will report his findings to the City Council immediately,” the statement reads.
Brown and Chitwood are also accused of reporting an alleged violation of General Statute 160A-168 — which covers the privacy of personnel records — directly to District Attorney Jamie Adams, bypassing Morphis and the city council.
The city says that Morphis “had already reviewed the matter, found no violation, and reported those findings to the Council.”
“When this improper reporting came to light, members of City Council expressed that they felt betrayed by Mr. Brown’s failure to follow proper policy and directed the City Manager to proceed with Brown’s termination,” reads the statement.
The city says Terziu was “preparing to do so” on July 23 when Rockingham Police Chief George Gillenwater emailed city officials and officials with the N.C. Department of Justice regarding Brown.
“Chief Gillenwater reported his concerns without any prompting, urging, or other communication from any Hamlet officials, and this email further validated concerns about Mr. Brown’s leadership,” the statement reads.
According to the city, Gillenwater’s stated in his email that Brown “and his administration have been abusing CJ Standards form F5B by marking (former) employees as under investigation for the purpose of intimidating officers to stay or to delay employment at a new agency.”
Gillenwater reportedly “attached a four-page letter to his email documenting his concerns in detail.”
“Following a thorough review of documented evidence, the City Manager determined that Mr. Brown’s actions had resulted in a catastrophic loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead the Hamlet Police Department,” reads the statement. “Accordingly, Mr. Brown’s employment was terminated on July 23, 2025. He was not terminated for reporting a sexual harassment allegation; he was terminated for documented misconduct.”
According to the city, Terziu issued Brown a statement of charges with 30 pages of supporting documentation for issues including: insubordination; falsification of records; conduct unbecoming an officer; and discourteous treatment of employees.
Van Camp told the RO on Sept. 25 that “most of the alleged reasons for Chief Brown’s termination were ‘investigated’ and provided after he was terminated.”
“The alleged basis for Chief Brown’s termination, which stems from a complaint submitted by an employee at another city police department, was never investigated by the City prior to Chief Brown’s abrupt termination” Van Camp said. “Chief Brown has responded to and has denied all allegations which Mr. Terziu claims were a basis for Chief Brown’s termination.”
The city says that Brown, through his attorneys, has “declined every due-process safeguard available to him, including the opportunity to respond in writing, participating in a hearing as provided by the Personnel Policy, and participating in a name-clearing hearing, which is authorized under federal law.”
In the Sept. 25 statement, Van Camp also said that “has been made aware of information suggesting that Mr. Terziu was concerned that city employees were becoming suspicious and asking questions about the accuracy of claims that Mr. Terziu had served in ‘the Unit’ … and that Mr. Terziu believed, albeit incorrectly, that Chief Brown was involved in this effort to determine whether Mr. Terziu had actually served in the Special Forces as a Delta operator.”
Van Camp said the city was provided an affidavit from a witness who was reportedly texted by Terziu on May 29. In that alleged text, Terziu reportedly said, in part, that he was “going back to the unit hopefully.”
“Any independent investigation of Mr. Terziu’s decision to fire Chief Brown should include a thorough examination of whether Mr. Terziu’s animosity towards Chief Brown was triggered by his belief that Chief Brown and other city employees were raising questions about Mr. Terziu’s military background, whether Mr. Terziu actually served in the Unit, whether Mr. Terziu claimed to others to have served in the Unit, and whether these issues – combined with the subsequent reporting of the sexual harassment complaint – provided the pretext for Mr. Terziu to retaliate against and fire Chief Brown out of self-preservation,” Van Camp said.
The city says that Terziu was hired “in part because of his excellent military service record, but he has never held himself out as being a ‘Special Forces Green Beret” or an ‘Operator’ in any ‘Tier 1’ military unit.”
“Although Mr. Terziu cannot publicly disclose portions of his service record, he can say publicly that he proudly served as a paratrooper in the Infantry, later attended Special Operations Civil Affairs assessment and selection, and earned the MOS designation for Civil Affairs, which is one of the three designated tribes under United States Army Special Operations…” the statement reads. “The City of Hamlet stands behind Mr. Terziu and his military service record 100%.”
The city contends that Brown’s termination “was about accountability and documented misconduct, not retaliation.”
“Independent reports from outside agencies, combined with the City Council’s directive, made this action unavoidable,” the statement reads. “The City of Hamlet is committed to restoring stability in the Hamlet Police Department, ensuring employees are treated with dignity and fairness, and reinforcing the values of integrity, transparency, and accountability.”
It should be noted that neither party has submitted any documentation, aside from the termination letter, in this matter to the RO — although a resolution passed by the Hamlet City Council on Sept. 24 authorized the city manager to “publicly release a statement and supporting documents” regarding the personnel matter.
NOTE: The PDF of the full statement was added to this story. 2:37 p.m. 10-3-25.
