A message from Lenoir County Sheriff Jackie Rogers
Yesterday, I learned on social media that several felony charges against Michael Jamaal Thompson had been dismissed. I immediately took it upon my myself to look into this matter.
I learned that Mr. Thompson was investigated in August 2023 and arrested by my office for several felonies related to breaking, entering and larceny of area sweepstakes businesses.
Here are the facts of the case:
Two separate people — a witness claiming to be a relative of Mr. Thompson’s and a security guard that worked at a sweepstakes business — positively identified Thompson as the suspect in the case. A detective developed probable cause for arrest warrants and Mr. Thompson was arrested.
The LCSO’s detective division collected DNA evidence and it was sent to the SBI lab to be analyzed. The results of that test came back in November 2024 and it eliminated Mr. Thompson as a suspect in all but one case. That one case was a felony conspiracy to commit larceny, which was based on video evidence and other information.
The detective immediately contacted the district attorney’s office and requested the charges against Mr. Thompson be dismissed. The detective didn’t have any more contact with the district attorney’s office or Mr. Thompson on this case.
All charges have been dismissed against Mr. Thompson and taken off his record. I have also had the original Facebook posts about Mr. Thompson’s arrest deleted.
Mr. Thompson was represented by an attorney. The normal and accepted practice for criminal cases is that if there are any changes in a defendant’s case, the defendant would be notified by their attorney, not by the district attorney’s office or law enforcement.
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