A former Brunswick County sheriff’s deputy has been convicted of soliciting sex acts from a woman who identifies herself as an escort.
Timothy Paul Caulder was convicted in Brunswick County District Court on Tuesday of two counts of soliciting prostitution and two counts of soliciting crimes against nature. Chief District Judge Jerry Jolly found Caulder not guilty on a charge of willful failure to discharge his duties as a sheriff’s deputy.
According to testimony from a 32-year-old female victim in the case, the former deputy asked her if she would exchange sex acts for money during a traffic stop on U.S. 17 in Leland on Aug. 11, 2013. The victim’s boyfriend was arrested on a warrant out of New Hanover County for failure to appear in court.
Since she was without a license, she had to wait to be picked up. While she was waiting for a ride, the victim said Caulder–who was one of the officers on duty at scene–started to talk to her and asked her what she did for a living. She told Caulder she was an escort.
The victim said Caulder asked her how much she charged and “asked me if I was willing to meet him at the Home Depot [in Shallotte] at 6 or 7 in the morning to exchange business…I told him he would get sex.”
She never met Caulder at Home Depot. She went to authorities about the encounter.
Caulder was arrested in August 2013 after a two-week internal investigation by the sheriff’s office professional standards division, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Emily Flax previously said. He was fired from the sheriff’s office after his arrest. (Read previous story)
On Aug. 23, 2013, detectives with the professional standards division conducted a fake arrest for heroin. The detectives wired the victim and set up a traffic stop in Holden Beach where they called out Caulder to the scene.
When the victim encountered Caulder again, she stated, “He said ‘I waited for you for over an hour. Where were you?’”
Caulder then tried to set up another meeting in which he discussed in detail the sex acts with the victim. Their conversation was recorded.
“He discusses price, he discusses the discount for not meeting him the first time, he discusses in detail what he’s going to do…This didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Assistant District Attorney Quintin McGee said. “[He was] on duty, in his patrol car, wearing his uniform, having a conversation with [the victim].
“Soliciting prostitution, soliciting crimes against nature, not once but twice. And he had the audacity to do it while on duty.”
James Payne, Caulder’s defense attorney, questioned the integrity of the victim in the case.
“I don’t know how this court, judge, can rely on [the victim’s] testimony,” Payne said. “Or do anything but be convinced that she’s a prostitute with a drug problem. Now let’s just call it what it is. She just got out of drug rehab. She’s a convicted felon. She was charged with soliciting prostitution a few months prior to this instance and then…numerous drug convictions, numerous bad check charges, which all go to lack of the ability of this person to even know what the truth is.”
Jolly sentenced Caulder to a 45-day suspended sentence and 18 months of unsupervised release.
Caulder gave notice of appeal after the conviction and Payne withdrew as Caulder’s attorney.
“Because this is a person was a sworn law enforcement officer at the time, he had been in law enforcement, that was his career in a couple of different locations in Brunswick County, he didn’t have a prior criminal history,” McGeee said. “This was just something that needed to be tried and put in front of the court. Because you can’t have that.”
McGee added that if the appeal goes through to superior court, “We’ll put it out in front of the community and let 12 folks decide what it is.”
Caulder was hired as a detention center deputy Dec. 19, 2011. He was promoted to a road deputy Aug. 20, 2012, and earned an annual salary of $36,897, Flax said.
