Bollard blocking alley at center of controversy
The Alamance County district attorney’s office has dismissed a misdemeanor charge of injury to real property against Graham businessman Chuck Talley, who is married to Graham mayor Jennifer Talley.
Alamance County assistant D.A. Sharron Kurtz voluntarily dismissed the charge late Friday afternoon after her review of the evidence – namely, a survey showing that no one owns the alleyway at the center of the case – showed there was no way to proceed, according to Graham attorney Robert Jennings, who represented Talley for the case.
The case had been scheduled to go to court this Friday, Jennings told the newspaper.
“It was straight up dismissed,” Jennings said Monday in an interview with The Alamance News. “Mr. Talley did not have to perform any act, pay any money, or offer any statement. My position was going to be, legally, there was no way to prove the charge against Mr. Talley.”
A survey of the alleyway between 103 and 109 North Main Street was conducted by Boswell Surveyors of Burlington in December 2024 to determine whether the city of Graham had any ownership interest.
Instead, the survey revealed that no one owns the alleyway, based on a copy of the survey that city officials released last month, following a brief closed session with the city council, minus Graham mayor Jennifer Talley, who recused herself.
The disputed alleyway had, for decades, been used as a public “throughway” to get from the 100 Block of North Main Street to the rear entrances of commercial properties along that same block, Chuck Talley explained in an earlier interview.
Last July, the Graham police department charged Chuck Talley in response to a complaint from another Graham businessman, Jason Cox, who like the Talleys, owns multiple commercial properties in the historic downtown business district.
Claiming to own the alleyway, Cox complained to the police department that Chuck Talley had removed a plastic bollard from the alley that runs between HiFi Records 103 North Main Street, in a building owned by Cox, and Two Krafty at 109 North Main Street, in a building owned by JDBH Properties of Graham.
On July 17, Talley, 58, white, male, of 808 Sideview Street in Graham, was subsequently served with a summons, directing him to appear in Alamance County district court two weeks later, according to the court file.
The plastic bollard had been erected in the alleyway in advance of Cox’s plan to install an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) machine, funded by a grant from Cone Health, along one of the exterior walls that face the alleyway, based on Chuck Talley’s description.
Chuck Talley told the newspaper that he’d notified Cox’s property manager (his father, Homer Cox) beforehand of his intention to remove the bollard from the alleyway so that one of his tenants could get to the back of her property. He said he’d later contacted both Jason Cox and Homer Cox afterward to let them know he had the bollard, and they could retrieve it at any time.
Meanwhile, Todd Lambert, a civil engineer, wrote a letter to the city of Graham in late August 2024, asking the city to remove the bollard, which remained in place as of Wednesday.
The engineer said his research of historical tax maps and related deeds, copies of which he included, showed that there had never been any transfer of ownership of the alleyway to any previous or current property owners along North Main Street, based on a copy of the letter that the newspaper obtained from Graham city officials through a public records request.
“There are numerous deeds throughout the City (and County) that individuals have [irrevocable ownership of land and buildings] for public rights-of-ways,” Lambert noted in the letter he sent to the city on behalf of JDBH Properties, which owns the building at 109 North Main Street.
“This does not give that individual the right to close or restrict the public use of that portion of their property,” Lambert wrote. “Again, my request is for the City to immediately remove the bollard as it blocks the public alley and harms the public and adjoining property owners.”
Lambert told The Alamance News Wednesday afternoon that he has not yet received a response from the city but intended to follow up with Graham officials about his request to have the bollard removed from the alleyway.
Talley’s defense attorney underscored the characterization of the bollard as an unlawful obstruction to public property.
“It is an obstruction to what we contend is public right-of-way,” Jennings told the newspaper Monday. “The dude, straight up, had no right to put it there.”
“I think that, once the prosecutor’s office was able to review all the facts, they decided to do the right thing and dismiss this case,” Jennings elaborated. “It’s truly a civil matter, and the state of North Carolina should not be required to foot the bill for a case like this that ought to be litigated in the civil courts. I applaud the D.A.’s office for recognizing that.
“The only damage done to anything was to the bolts that were originally used to secure this bollard to the concrete of the public right-of-way; and Mr. Talley, before any law enforcement involvement at all, not only gave the original bollard back but also four brand new, identical bolts,” Jennings said in the interview.
Chuck Talley presented the newspaper last summer with the same type of concrete bolts, which retail for $2.39 each at Colonial Hardware, one of the businesses in downtown Graham he owns with his wife.
“The owner of the bollard was made whole in many a way,” Jennings pointed out. “The job of a prosecutor’s office is, above all, to seek justice. I feel like this office does a good job of that, and this is a great example. My client was put through something by somebody that didn’t really have a case, got his nose out of joint, and went and carried on to the police – and that happens sometimes.”
