A prosecutor with the Durham district attorney’s office this week recommended that charges be dropped against a former city employee who lost his job after police mistakenly accused him of breaking into an internet cafe.

Felony charges of breaking and entering and possession of burglary tools that had been filed against Johnny Ray Lynch were dropped Tuesday in Durham County District Court, Sarah Willets, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, told the INDY.

Now Lynch, a former employee with the City of Durham’s street maintenance division for nearly 17 years, says he intends to file a lawsuit against the city, claiming he was wrongfully fired from his job.

Willets said charges were dismissed against Lynch because of insufficient evidence.

Lynch tried to tell city officials as much. He pointed to a groundswell of evidence showing he did not spend Thanksgiving morning breaking into the City of Gold internet cafe in East Durham.

Lynch, as previously reported by the INDY, told police officers who found him inside that he wasn’t breaking into the place when he tripped the alarm. He was locked inside and trying to get out.

He also showed his employers affidavits from the City of Gold owners who stated that Lynch was forgotten in the bathroom and set off the alarm when he attempted to leave.

“Mr. Lynch did not break into the facility, he was locked in,” the manager stated in the affidavit. “We will not be pursuing any criminal charges or restitution in this matter.”

The City of Gold manager also stated that he would be willing to testify in court on Lynch’s behalf.

Another affidavit indicated a door and ATM inside the internet cafe were damaged during a prior break-in.

As for the alleged burglary tools, yet another affidavit stated that “the tool bag and items in question that were confiscated by the Durham Police Department … do in fact belong to the business center.”

Lynch, 48, first filed a grievance with the city that states he was wrongfully fired for breaking a law for “which I am not guilty of and haven’t been found guilty [of].”

He wanted “to be rehired with full benefits, back pay, and an apology” from the street maintenance division’s director.

City spokeswoman Beverly Thompson shared with the INDY the city’s administrative leave policy that was used to determine Lynch’s employment status.

The policy states that if an employee is charged with any criminal offense—excluding traffic violations, serious performance issues, or is under investigation for “possible serious misconduct”—then the city can place the worker on administrative leave with pay for up to 10 days.

A second option allows the city to reassign an employee “until closure is brought regarding the allegations.”

Lynch’s supervisors and other city officials concluded that neither of those options was “appropriate due to the nature of the allegations” in accordance with the leave policy and so exercised a third option: the street maintenance supervisor could be suspended without pay or terminated.

On December 18, Lynch’s supervisors fired him for violating the city’s employee ethics code.

“The evidence against Mr. Lynch is compelling, [and] is in conflict with the statement provided by Mr. Lynch to divisional management and is representative of gross misconduct,” his direct supervisor stated in the termination letter.

But evidence of Lynch’s innocence was also compelling and cast considerable doubt that he actually broke into the City of Gold.

Lynch appealed his firing and participated in a virtual grievance hearing on February 18.

On March 26, Lynch received a letter from newly hired City Manager Wanda Page, who stated that she had “reviewed documents, submitted evidence and related information” from the hearing and concluded that he had been given an “appropriate opportunity to prepare and present” his case. The city manager, who was hired in mid-March, said she upheld the city’s firing of Lynch and told him her letter was “the final step in the grievance process.”

City of Durham spokeswoman Beverly Thompson told the INDY that even though she could not discuss “specific personnel matters, former employees in general, are not barred from applying for positions in which they might be interested unless they were terminated for gross misconduct.”

Never mind due process, Lynch just wishes his former employee had believed him in the first place.

“It was like the City of Gold owner said,” Lynch told the INDY on Thursday about his former supervisors and city officials. “They didn’t want to hear the truth.”

Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.

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