BY MIKE FUHRMAN

A former Statesville Police Department officer was convicted of misdemeanor assault and domestic violence in Iredell County District Court on Wednesday.

Following a two-hour trial, Visiting Judge Jon Myers found there was sufficient evidence to find Anthony Jerome Irving Jr., 25, guilty of both charges. He imposed a suspended 30-day jail sentence and placed Irving on unsupervised probation for 12 months.

The charges stemmed from an incident involving Irving and his girlfriend, SPD Officer Wadrina Ealy, which occurred in their Statesville apartment on December 29.

According to trial testimony, Irving notified his supervisor about the incident the following day. Ealy did not call the police to report the incident, but later gave a statement to Capt. John Galliher, who oversees the SPD’s Criminal Investigations Division.

Galliher was the only witness called by Assistant District Attorney Carrie Nitzu in Wednesday’s trial.

Based on a 26-second video of an incident captured by Irving’s SPD body camera and interviews with Irving and Ealy, Galliher said he decided to file the criminal charges against Irving after consulting with the District Attorney’s Office.

The video captured Irving cursing, restraining Ealy in a brief “bear hug” and then grabbing her elbow while attempting to take a bottle of shampoo or body wash from her hand.

Grabbing her elbow qualified as assault under N.C. law, Nitzu argued. An assault, she said, is “any force, however slight, directly or indirectly against another person.”

Defense attorney Ken Darty argued that Irving had a legal right to use a “reasonable” amount of force required to recover his hygiene product from Ealy.

“If that is an act of domestic violence or an assault … probably any touching might be,” Darty argued.

Irving testified that the incident occurred about 5:30 a.m., while he was still on duty. The couple had argued on the phone earlier. He went to their apartment to move some personal items to a spare bedroom so he could cool down after his tour was over, following the advice of a therapist the couple was seeing.

He grabbed some of his clothes which were on hangers from Ealy’s hand and then gave her a “bear hug” — which activated the body cam — and then grabbed her elbow so he could get the shampoo or body wash from her hand, Irving testified.

Myers, in his ruling, said that squeezing Ealy’s elbow while shouting “stop grabbing my shit” was sufficient evidence to convict Irving of assault and domestic violence under N.C. law.

Irving, who was hired by the SPD in February 2024, was notified that he had been terminated on January 10 following an internal investigation.

Darty said his client would appeal the conviction and request a jury trial in Iredell County Superior Court.

“I have never seen something so egregious and atrocious that he would lose his career … over something so trivial,” Darty said during his closing argument.