Cherokee County drops woman's charges after deputy fired

On now to Cherokee County, where there is breaking news this afternoon happening right now. Prosecutors in Cherokee County plan to drop misdemeanor obstruction charges against Natasha Lopez following an online harassment investigation involving a former sheriff's deputy. The attorney general, the state solicitor general, rather, Todd Hayes, is speaking about this case right now. Let's listen in. Alteration based on the way the case was presented to us. Could you explain, I guess, the timeline of this from October to now, I guess? Why wasn't this mentioned maybe a little bit sooner, knowing that yet? All right. Sure. A couple of things intervened. We still wanted to get the ruling from the court on the September the 18th motion hearing. So we needed the court to go ahead and speak on that. And then immediately following the disclosure on the 21st, there were some other motions that were interposed by the defense that kind of froze our ability to move forward with the case until this morning. Anything else? And again, I guess, based on the question, is it still going to be the sheriff's policy to talk about, like, her use of flock in this case and if anything will, is that normal that they would use flock for a traffic incident? How the sheriff chooses to develop evidence in the cases that they present to us is entirely within their purview. As long as that evidence is lawfully obtained and presented to us in an appropriate fashion, we'll consider it for what it's worth. And then are the cases against Mr. Helms also going to be considered to be dismissed as well? The cases against Mr. Helms were referred, I believe, to the Bartow County District Attorney's Office. My understanding is that that case is still open and being handled by a separate prosecutor. So bottom line, these charges against the locals would not have been dismissed had the former deputy not done everything he had done That's correct and our review of the evidence in the case was that we were on track to proceed to trial. Again the principal challenges that the defendant levied against the state's case were denied in two separate orders by the state court and until Corporal Mills decisions came to light we had no reason not to proceed. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. The Solicitor General of Cherokee County, Todd Hayes, speaking about the case where prosecutors are abandoning misdemeanor obstruction charges against a Cherokee County woman after an investigation linked a fired sheriff's corporal to a months-long online harassment campaign targeting her family. The Cherokee County Solicitor General addressed the state's decision to drop this case during a live news conference, which we just played for you now. Prosecutors filing a motion for entry in the obstruction case against Natasha Lopez, signaling that they're no longer willing to pursue those charges.