IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA

2022-NCSC-116

No. 13PA21

Filed 4 November 2022

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

v.

WALLACE BRADSHER

On discretionary review pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-31 of a unanimous decision 

of the Court of Appeals, 275 N.C. App. 715 (2020), vacating in part and finding no 

error in part in judgments entered on 19 June 2018 and 30 July 2018 by Judge Paul 

C. Ridgeway in Superior Court, Wake County, and remanding for resentencing. 

Heard in the Supreme Court on 29 August 2022.

Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, by James W. Doggett, Deputy Solicitor 

General, for the State-appellant.

Glenn Gerding, Appellate Defender, and Michele A. Goldman, Assistant 

Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellee.

BARRINGER, Justice.

¶ 1 In this matter, we consider whether the Court of Appeals erred by vacating

defendant’s conviction of felony obstruction of justice. Upon careful review, we 

conclude that the Court of Appeals erred. Therefore, we reverse the Court of Appeals’ 

decision.
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Opinion of the Court

I. Procedural Background

¶ 2 By superseding indictment, a grand jury indicted defendant Wallace Bradsher

for conspiracy to commit obtaining property by false pretenses, obtaining property by 

false pretenses, aiding and abetting obtaining property by false pretenses, three 

counts of felony obstruction of justice, and willful failure to discharge the duties of 

office. After a nearly three-week-long trial, a jury returned a guilty verdict on 

obtaining property by false pretenses, aiding and abetting obtaining property by false 

pretenses, one count of misdemeanor obstruction of justice, one count of felony 

obstruction of justice, and willful failure to discharge duties of office. The jury 

acquitted defendant of the remaining charges. The trial court arrested judgment on 

the charge of obtaining property by false pretenses and entered judgment on the 

remaining convictions. After being sentenced, defendant appealed.

¶ 3 On appeal to the Court of Appeals, defendant presented multiple arguments, 

but the sole issue before this Court is whether there was sufficient evidence to convict 

defendant of felony obstruction of justice based on his false statements to the State 

Bureau of Investigation (SBI). Thus, the appeal before this Court only concerns Count 

V of the superseding indictment. Count V alleged that defendant “commit[ted] the 

infamous offense of obstruction of justice by knowingly and intentionally providing 

false and fabricated statements to David Whitley, agent of the [SBI] . . . designed to 

mislead the agent thereby impeding, delaying and obstructing the investigation, and 
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legal and public justice.”

¶ 4 As to this issue, the Court of Appeals concluded that when taking the evidence 

in the light most favorable to the State, the evidence presented at trial supported a 

determination that defendant’s statement that Cindy Blitzer worked on special 

projects was false. State v. Bradsher, 275 N.C. App. 715, 724 (2020). However, the 

Court of Appeals concluded that defendant’s statement that Cindy Blitzer worked on 

conflict cases was not false given that a particular time period was not specified. Id.

The Court of Appeals viewed this as an omission, not a false or fabricated statement. 

Id. Then, the Court of Appeals concluded that “the State did not provide substantial 

evidence of obstruction to support the conviction for felony obstruction of justice.” Id.

at 725.

¶ 5 The State petitioned this Court for discretionary review pursuant to N.C.G.S. 

§ 7A-31, arguing that the Court of Appeals erred by vacating the felony obstruction

of justice conviction for insufficient evidence. This Court allowed the State’s petition 

for discretionary review.

II. Standard of Review

¶ 6 “Whether the State presented substantial evidence of each essential element 

of the offense is a question of law; therefore, we review the denial of a motion to 

dismiss de novo.” State v. Crockett, 368 N.C. 717, 720 (2016). The question for a court 

on a motion to dismiss for insufficient evidence “is whether there is substantial 
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evidence (1) of each essential element of the offense charged, or of a lesser offense 

included therein, and (2) of defendant’s being the perpetrator of such offense.” State 

v. Powell, 299 N.C. 95, 98 (1980). “If so, the motion is properly denied.” Id. Substantial 

evidence is the same as more than a scintilla of evidence. Id. at 99.

In reviewing challenges to the sufficiency of evidence, we 

must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the 

State, giving the State the benefit of all reasonable 

inferences. Contradictions and discrepancies do not 

warrant dismissal of the case but are for the jury to resolve.

The test for sufficiency of the evidence is the same whether 

the evidence is direct or circumstantial or both. 

Circumstantial evidence may withstand a motion to 

dismiss and support a conviction even when the evidence 

does not rule out every hypothesis of innocence. If the 

evidence presented is circumstantial, the court must 

consider whether a reasonable inference of defendant’s 

guilt may be drawn from the circumstances. Once the court 

decides that a reasonable inference of defendant’s guilt 

may be drawn from the circumstances, then it is for the 

jury to decide whether the facts, taken singly or in 

combination, satisfy it beyond a reasonable doubt that the

defendant is actually guilty.

State v. Barnes, 334 N.C. 67, 75–76 (1993) (cleaned up). In making this 

determination, a court “is to consider all evidence actually admitted, competent or 

incompetent, which is favorable to the State, disregarding defendant’s evidence 

unless favorable to the State.” State v. Baker, 338 N.C. 526, 558–59 (1994). “When 

ruling on a motion to dismiss, the trial court should be concerned only about whether 

the evidence is sufficient for jury consideration, not about the weight of the evidence.” 

State v. Fritsch, 351 N.C. 373, 379 (2000).
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III. Analysis

¶ 7 “At common law it is an offense to do any act which prevents, obstructs, 

impedes or hinders public or legal justice.” In re Kivett, 309 N.C. 635, 670 (1983)

(quoting 67 C.J.S. Obstructing Justice § 2 (1978)). When this common law offense is 

done with deceit and intent to defraud, it is a felony. N.C.G.S. § 14-3(b) (2021); State 

v. Ditenhafer, 373 N.C. 116, 128 (2019).

¶ 8 On appeal to this Court, the State argues that the Court of Appeals erred in 

the same manner as the Court of Appeals erred in Ditenhafer, 373 N.C. 116 (2019). 

According to the State, by reversing the Court of Appeals’ holding concerning the 

sufficiency of the evidence for a felony obstruction of justice conviction in Ditenhafer,

this Court “showed that courts should not construe indictments narrowly to escape 

their obligation to review evidence in the light most favorable [to] the State.” The 

State asserts that the Court of Appeals assumed the State was pursuing a conviction 

on a non-pleaded theory about omissions, rather than viewing the evidence in the 

light most favorable to the State to assess whether defendant made false statements. 

The State also emphasizes that the meaning of testimony bears on the evidence’s 

weight, not sufficiency, as reiterated in State v. Tucker, 380 N.C. 234, 2022-NCSC15, ¶ 22. The State further notes that an answer’s falsehood may depend on the 

statement’s context.

¶ 9 Defendant contends that the State relied on an omission by defendant, rather 
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Opinion of the Court

than a false or fabricated statement, for the felony obstruction of justice conviction. 

According to defendant, there was no evidence that Agent Whitley asked defendant 

if Cindy Blitzer was currently working on conflict cases. Defendant also argues that 

Agent Whitley never testified that any false or fabricated statement made by 

defendant on 6 September 2016 obstructed, impeded, or hindered his investigation.

¶ 10 From our review of the transcript and exhibits admitted at trial, we conclude 

that when viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and giving 

the State the benefit of all reasonable inferences, a reasonable inference of 

defendant’s guilt for felony obstruction of justice can be drawn from the 

circumstances. See Barnes, 334 N.C. at 75.

¶ 11 The State’s evidence at trial showed the following: In mid-January 2015, 

defendant, the elected district attorney for Caswell County and Person County

(District 9A), commenced employment of Cindy Blitzer. Also at that time, Craig 

Blitzer, the elected district attorney for Rockingham County (District 17A),

commenced employment of Pam Bradsher. Pam Bradsher was defendant’s wife;

Cindy Blitzer was Craig Blitzer’s wife. However, defendant and Craig Blitzer wanted 

to employ their own wives.

¶ 12 Initially, Cindy Blitzer, employed by defendant, worked from the Caswell 

County District Attorney’s Office (District 9A) on Caswell County District Court 

matters with John Stultz, who was an assistant district attorney in that district. Pam 
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Opinion of the Court

Bradsher, employed by Craig Blitzer, initially worked from the Rockingham County 

District Attorney’s Office (District 17A). Yet, by March or April 2015, Pam Bradsher 

worked from the Person County District Attorney’s Office (District 9A) on Person 

County matters. Around the same time, defendant authorized Cindy Blitzer to work 

from either the Rockingham County District Attorney’s Office (District 17A) or from 

her home.

¶ 13 After this transition, Stultz assigned Cindy Blitzer to work on a case from 

Rockingham County that the district attorney’s office in District 9A was handling

(the Shockley case). Given this context, the Shockley case was classified as a conflict 

case. Cindy Blitzer reviewed and organized the file. She also worked on two or three 

other matters for Stultz “but nothing significant.”

¶ 14 In May 2015, the State Ethics Commission informed defendant and Craig 

Blitzer that the prohibition against employing relatives under the State Government 

Ethics Act, N.C.G.S. § 138A-40, could not be waived. As a result, they could not hire 

their own wives as desired. Roughly three months later in August 2015, Pam 

Bradsher resigned from her employment with District 17A.

¶ 15 In light of Pam Bradsher’s resignation, defendant asked Craig Blitzer to hire 

Tyler Henderson as a District 17A employee to work in District 9A and exclusively 

on District 9A matters. Henderson had previously been working for defendant in 

District 9A. Craig Blitzer agreed and hired Henderson. Henderson commenced work 
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as a District 17A employee on 18 August 2015, the day after Pam Bradsher’s last day 

of work as a District 17A employee. Craig Blitzer did not supervise Henderson’s work, 

and Henderson worked from the Person County District Attorney’s Office on Person 

County matters.

¶ 16 Cindy Blitzer meanwhile remained employed by District 9A. At that time, 

Cindy Blitzer was working the hours that she claimed “[f]or the most part.”

¶ 17 Also in August 2015, Stultz informed defendant that he did not feel comfortable 

trying the Shockley case in the proposed time frame, and defendant responded that 

he would take over the case and try the case. Defendant further stated that he would 

take over any responsibility for the supervision of Cindy Blitzer as it relates to the 

Shockley case and otherwise. After this conversation, Stultz never assigned any task 

to Cindy Blitzer.

¶ 18 An assistant district attorney informed the SBI in 2015 that Cindy Blitzer was 

not working the hours she claimed, and the SBI started investigating. For 

unexplained reasons, the investigation ended.

¶ 19 As of early March 2016, Cindy Blitzer was only working on the Shockley case. 

She had no other files or work. Defendant and Henderson went to the Rockingham 

County District Attorney’s Office in March 2016 to retrieve the Shockley case file 

from Cindy Blitzer. During that visit, Craig Blitzer told defendant about the SBI 

investigation. In response, defendant told Craig Blitzer to vary Cindy Blitzer’s time 
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by entering vacation and sick time.

¶ 20 After defendant and Henderson took the Shockley case file, Cindy Blitzer had 

no work to do. She called defendant to obtain work, but she never received a response 

from defendant. She also asked her husband to speak with defendant about her lack 

of work. Despite not working, she continued to put in her time as if she was working 

and received payment for that time.

¶ 21 In April 2016, Cindy Blitzer started a full-time nursing program at a university 

while still employed by District 9A. Craig Blitzer also informed defendant in April 

2016 that Cindy Blitzer had no work to do since March 2016 when the Shockley case 

file was taken from her. Defendant responded to Craig Blitzer by telling him that 

Cindy Blitzer should concentrate on school and continue to input her time as if she 

was working. After this conversation, Cindy Blitzer never received any work.

¶ 22 Cindy Blitzer testified that:

Q. . . . [A]fter March when the Shockley case is 

taken away from you . . . [d]oes the defendant, Wallace 

Bradsher, reach out to you and ask you, “Hey, Cindy, where 

are you? Hey, Cindy, what’s you working on? Hey, Cindy, 

why aren’t you in the office? Hey, Cindy, can you come and 

help me with something or help someone in the office with 

anything?”

A. No.

Q. Does he ever at any point reach out to you or 

does anyone from his office ever reach out to you and 

request that you do any work whatsoever for the Person or 

Caswell County District Attorney’s Office[s]?
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Opinion of the Court

A. No.

Q. Do they ever reach out to you after April the

1st — after they take the Shockley file in March and say,

“Hey, I’ve got this special project I want you to help us out 

with”?

A. No.

Q. Before that date, had they ever asked you to 

help out with a special project?

A. No.

Q. Did he ever ask you or did anyone at his staff

ever ask you to use your nursing expertise in any way to

assist with a mental health court?

A. No.

Q. Have you ever heard of a mental health court?

A. I am aware of what a mental health court is, 

but I was never asked to help with one, no.

Q. Okay. Were you ever asked to help out with 

any driving while impaired court as far as a special project?

A. No, sir.

Q. Bottom line, after that file gets taken from 

you, do you have any work to do for the defendant?

A. No, sir.

¶ 23 In April 2016, the assistant district attorney who had contacted the SBI in 

2015 contacted the SBI again, informing the SBI that Cindy Blitzer was attending 
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school during work hours. The SBI started a new investigation.

¶ 24 In July 2016, the SBI assigned Agent Whitley to the special investigations unit

that was investigating whether Cindy Blitzer was “actually working the hours that 

she was being paid as an investigator in [District 9A].” As Agent Whitley explained, 

“[t]he investigation was to concentrate on either showing that Cindy Blitzer did work 

the hours she was being paid for or she didn’t work the hours she was being paid for.”

¶ 25 Agent Whitley contacted the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to learn 

whether Cindy Blitzer was putting in hours worked or whether she had taken leave. 

AOC personnel informed Agent Whitley that Cindy Blitzer “was still entering her 

time . . . [generally for] eight hours a day, five days a week.” AOC personnel also 

informed Agent Whitley that her hours had not been approved in the system.

¶ 26 Next, on or about 10 August 2016, Agent Whitley telephoned defendant to 

introduce himself, schedule an appointment, and inform him of the investigation and 

the nature of the investigation. When defendant returned Agent Whitley’s call, Agent 

Whitley informed defendant of the call’s purpose. Agent Whitley told defendant that 

the SBI “had received a complaint . . . that a member of [defendant’s] staff, Cindy 

Blitzer, was not showing up to work [and] was being paid for hours that she was not 

working.” Agent Whitley explained that he “would like to come [to defendant’s office] 

and talk with him about it” and “conduct interviews with some of his staff.” As a 

result of the call, Agent Whitley and defendant scheduled an appointment to meet on 
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Opinion of the Court

6 September 2016 at the Person County District Attorney’s Office.

¶ 27 On 15 August 2016, defendant called Stultz after hours and asked him to come 

to the Person County District Attorney’s Office. At the office, defendant informed 

Stultz that he had received a phone call from an SBI agent and that there was a 

problem with Cindy Blitzer’s hours. Stultz asked defendant who was releasing her 

logged time, and defendant answered, “You are.” Stultz disagreed, reminding 

defendant that earlier that year defendant had said he would assign that duty to 

someone else. Stultz further stated his speculation that the problem may be that 

Cindy Blitzer’s hours were not being released. After calling defendant’s 

administrative assistant to ask who was supposed to be releasing Cindy Blitzer’s time 

and hearing from her that this task was still assigned to him, Stultz told defendant 

that he could release the time if that was what defendant requested him to do. While 

logging into his computer, Stultz asked defendant whether Cindy Blitzer still worked 

for District 17A and had been working her hours. Defendant answered both questions 

in the affirmative. Based on his prior conversation with defendant in August 2015,

Stultz understood that defendant had been supervising Cindy Blitzer since that 

conversation. Thus, Stultz released the time as directed by defendant.

¶ 28 Prior to his appointment with defendant, Agent Whitley spoke with two 

District 17A employees who had some information that they wanted to provide.

¶ 29 Agent Whitley’s goal for his visit to the Person County District Attorney’s 
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Opinion of the Court

Office on 6 September 2016 was to interview people with whom Cindy Blitzer worked. 

He had mentally considered the process for his investigation. However, since it was 

early in the investigation, he had not developed a lead sheet detailing the intended 

investigative path. At that stage in the investigation, he did not have a preconceived 

notion of how the investigation would proceed. It could have gone many ways; “[i]t 

just depend[ed] on the information that [he] receive[d].”

¶ 30 On 6 September 2016, after arriving at the Person County District Attorney’s 

Office, Agent Whitley interviewed defendant. Agent Whitley testified concerning his 

conversation with defendant about Cindy Blitzer’s work as follows:

Q. . . . [D]id you ask him what type of work Cindy 

Blitzer was supposed to be doing for him?

A. I did.

Q. Was he able to tell you anything?

A. He told me that she worked on conflict cases. 

I believe he did reference the Shockley case when we met. 

He said that she also worked on special projects for him.

Q. When you say “for him,” what do you mean by 

that?

A. Projects at his direction.

Q. Okay. That he had assigned to her?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Did he provide you with a list of special 

projects that he had assigned to her?
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Opinion of the Court

A. No, he didn’t at that time. We did agree that 

he would compile a list of projects and forward that to me 

at a later date.

Q. Okay. Well, let me go ahead and ask you: Did 

you ever get that list of projects that he worked on with 

her?

A. No, sir.

Q. Did he tell you if there were any other things

that she was supposed to be working on?

A. He did say that she was to help out in Caswell

County and also she worked — her day-to-day work would 

be done in Rockingham County, and she was to do any 

other projects or work that Mr. Stultz wanted her to do 

from Caswell County and then any other projects or work 

that the Rockingham County office wanted her to do.

Q. All right. Did he say to you that he ever talked 

to her about the number of hours that she was supposed to 

work?

A. He did say that he had spoken with her and 

she knew to put in 40 hours of work each week.

Q. Did you ask him if he had ever provided her 

with any equipment or anything like that through his 

office?

A. Yes, I did. He said that she was provided with 

a desk at one time, but that desk was allocated to someone 

else at a certain point and she no longer had it. He said 

that she did not have a computer through his office. I 

believe I asked about cell phones, that type thing. I think 

he said that she did have a phone there at the office, but no 

cell phone was issued to her.
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Opinion of the Court

. . . .

A. He told me at one point in the interview that 

she was a liaison to the Rockingham office for conflict 

cases.

. . . .

A. He said that she was — also does special 

projects at his direction.

Q. Again, at his direction?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And did you ask for a list of those special 

projects?

A. That was part of the list that we talked about 

towards the end of the interview, that I was expecting to 

meet with him again at some point to conduct another 

interview and receive this list of any projects or any work 

she could have done to give her credit for that.

Q. And is that the list that you never got?

A. Yes, sir.

. . . .

Q. Did you ask the defendant for a list of people 

who would have had direct contact working with Cindy 

Blitzer?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Was he able to provide you with that list?

A. He did.
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Opinion of the Court

Q. And when he provided you with that list, 

whose names were on it?

A. He told me that he believed the employees 

that could possibly have [contact with her or] worked with 

her would have been . . . Stultz [and five other individuals, 

including defendant’s administrative assistant].

Q. Did you talk to those folks?

A. Yes, sir. They were all interviewed.

. . . .

Q. All right. During the course of this interview

with the defendant, did you tell him that you were looking

into whether or not Cindy was actually doing any work?

A. That is exactly what I told him.

Q. When you said that to him, did the defendant 

ever have any doubt or express to you that he didn’t know 

if she was working or not?

A. No, he did not say that. He led me to believe

that she was working.

Q. And, in fact, told you he was going to give you 

a list of the things that she was working on?

A. Yes, sir.

. . . .

Q. As a result of that information that you 

received from the defendant, did you have to go look into 

things that he had told you that ended up not being true?

A. That is correct.
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Q. What types of things did you have to go look 

into?

A. Well, that expanded the list of people that had 

to be interviewed because we, basically, had to interview 

the bulk of the employees from each county. . . . There were 

quite a few things we had to do.

Q. Okay.

A. The lead sheet would have looked a lot 

different had the information from [defendant] been 

different.

¶ 31 During this interview, Agent Whitley also sought defendant’s permission to 

talk to his employees to collect information on whether Cindy Blitzer “was actually 

working for the money or not.”

¶ 32 After his trip to the Person County District Attorney’s Office and interview 

with defendant,1 Agent Whitley “realized [that he] was going to have to meet with 

[defendant] again” and that “[i]t was going to take a while to complete this process.” 

As a direct result of his interview with defendant, Agent Whitley had to track down 

other leads and had to interview the employees identified by defendant.

¶ 33 While at the Person County District Attorney’s Office, Agent Whitley 

interviewed three District 9A employees, two of which had been named by defendant. 

 

1 Agent Whitley also prepared his investigation notes from his interview of defendant, 

which included a note that defendant “stated that Cindy Blitzer is a liaison to the 

Rockingham [County District Attorney’s] Office for conflict cases,” and defendant “stated that 

Cindy Blitzer also does special projects at his direction.” (Emphases added.)
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Opinion of the Court

A few days later, Agent Whitley interviewed Stultz, who had been named by 

defendant. He also interviewed most if not all District 17A employees and interviewed 

nine more times the assistant district attorney who had initially contacted the SBI to 

inform the SBI that Cindy Blitzer was not working the hours she claimed. In the 

interviews, each of the employees identified by defendant as possibly having contact 

with or working with Cindy Blitzer indicated that he or she “had very minimal contact 

with Cindy [Blitzer].”

¶ 34 In addition to conducting interviews, the SBI submitted a public records 

request to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office to obtain documents reflecting 

keycard activity by Cindy Blitzer. Such information was requested from other 

counties as well. The documents obtained from Rockingham County reflected that 

Cindy Blitzer’s keycard was used on three days over the course of three months in 

the spring and summer of 2016.

¶ 35 In October 2016, the Blitzers called defendant and informed him that Cindy 

Blitzer wanted to resign. Defendant refused Cindy Blitzer’s resignation and told her 

to keep entering hours as if she was working. Defendant knew that Cindy Blitzer had 

no work to do. Nevertheless, he suggested that Cindy Blitzer had been working on 

“special projects” and that she should tell investigators that. This flabbergasted the 

Blitzers because Cindy Blitzer had never worked on or heard anything about special 

projects prior to that conversation. She had only worked on the Shockley case.
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¶ 36 Defendant later changed course and had his administrative assistant fire 

Cindy Blitzer a few days later.

¶ 37 The SBI continued to investigate whether Cindy Blitzer had been working 

while employed by defendant. In early March 2017, the SBI obtained a search 

warrant for and seized the computer in the Rockingham County District Attorney’s 

Office that had been identified as Cindy Blitzer’s computer. Shortly thereafter, Craig 

Blitzer resigned from his position as district attorney of Rockingham County.

¶ 38 Until May 2017, the Blitzers declined to submit themselves to interviews with 

the SBI. Cindy Blitzer stated during her interview on 12 May 2017 that she worked 

every hour that she logged until the Shockley case file was taken from her in March 

2016 but did not work thereafter. Given her statement, the SBI decided not to 

forensically examine the computer that it had seized. The SBI also issued subpoenas 

to telephone carriers for phone numbers affiliated with the Blitzers to obtain phone 

records of incoming and outgoing calls.

¶ 39 Subsequently, the State criminally charged Craig Blitzer, and he pleaded

guilty to one count of failure to discharge duties on 17 July 2017. The Blitzers also 

paid back the State $48,000. In October 2017, a grand jury indicted defendant by 

superseding indictment for conspiracy to commit obtaining property by false 

pretenses, obtaining property by false pretenses, aiding and abetting obtaining 

property by false pretenses, three counts of felony obstruction of justice, and willful 
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failure to discharge the duties of office.

¶ 40 Applying the standard of review for motions to dismiss for insufficiency of the 

evidence, we hold that the evidence taken in the light most favorable to the State was 

sufficient to support a determination that defendant knowingly and intentionally 

committed an act which obstructed, impeded, and hindered an investigation and 

public and legal justice. See In re Kivett, 309 N.C. at 670. “[A] reasonable inference of 

defendant’s guilt may be drawn from the circumstances” presented as evidence before 

the jury. Barnes, 334 N.C. at 75.

¶ 41 The Court of Appeals concluded that when taking the evidence in the light 

most favorable to the State, the evidence presented at trial supported a determination 

that defendant’s statement that Cindy Blitzer worked on special projects was false.2

Bradsher, 275 N.C. App. at 724. However, unlike the Court of Appeals, we 

additionally hold that a reasonable jury could conclude that defendant’s statement to 

Agent Whitley that Cindy Blitzer worked on conflict cases was false. Granted, Agent 

Whitley did not testify that he asked defendant if Cindy Blitzer was “currently”

working on conflict cases. Yet, as set forth previously in more detail, there was ample 

evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that he asked defendant that 

question or questions to that effect and defendant knowingly and intentionally 

 

2 Neither party petitioned for this Court’s review of this holding by the Court of 

Appeals.
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answered falsely. For example, Agent Whitley explained to defendant that the 

investigation’s purpose was to assess whether Cindy Blitzer “was being paid for hours 

that she was not working” and testified that defendant “told [him] that [Cindy Blitzer] 

worked on conflict cases . . . [and] also worked on special projects for him.”

¶ 42 Second, a reasonable jury could conclude that defendant’s false statements 

concerning Cindy Blitzer’s work on conflict cases and special projects for defendant

obstructed, impeded, and hindered the investigation and public and legal justice.

While Agent Whitley had considered a mental process when he interviewed 

defendant, he testified that his steps and process changed as a result of his interview 

of defendant, partly because of defendant’s false statements. He testified that “[i]t 

was going to take a while to complete this process.” In fact, after interviewing 

defendant, the SBI interviewed most District 9A and District 17A employees, 

obtained subpoenas for phone records, submitted public records requests for keycard 

access data for multiple counties, and reviewed the documents obtained. The SBI also 

obtained a search warrant for and seized the computer in the Rockingham County 

District Attorney’s Office that had been identified as Cindy Blitzer’s computer.

Further, after defendant’s interview with Agent Whitley, Cindy Blitzer remained 

employed by defendant and paid by the State until her dismissal by defendant in 

October 2016. Craig Blitzer also remained as district attorney for Rockingham 

County until his resignation in March 2017 and did not plead guilty until July 2017.
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¶ 43 While the dissent agrees that there is substantial evidence that defendant 

knowingly and intentionally made false statements with intent to deceive, the dissent 

contends the foregoing evidence previously summarized fails to satisfy the second 

element—of obstructing, impeding, or hindering public and legal justice. Yet, by 

focusing on whether there was “actual” obstruction of justice, the dissent substitutes 

its factual determination for that of the jury. To convince the dissent, direct, specific 

evidence is required. Further, to convince the dissent, the false statements must 

cause more than what would have occurred if defendant had not been interviewed or 

invoked his right to remain silent.

¶ 44 But this Court is not the fact-finder. We only consider whether there is “more 

than a scintilla of evidence” supporting the disputed element. Powell, 299 N.C. at 99. 

Is the evidence “existing and real, not just seeming or imaginary[?]” Id. Also, direct 

evidence is not required to survive a motion to dismiss for insufficiency of the 

evidence. See e.g., State v. Stone, 323 N.C. 447, 452 (1988) (“Circumstantial evidence 

may withstand a motion to dismiss and support a conviction even when the evidence 

does not rule out every hypothesis of innocence.”).

¶ 45 Nor is it proper for this Court to contemplate what evidence “the State should 

have presented.” State v. Miller, 363 N.C. 96, 100–01 (2009). The “proper application 

of the standard of review focuses our analysis on the evidence that the State did 

present in these highly fact-specific cases.” Id. at 100. Thus, this Court has and must 
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Opinion of the Court

assess the circumstantial evidence to determine “whether a reasonable inference of 

defendant’s guilt may be drawn from the circumstances.” Barnes, 334 N.C. at 75.

¶ 46 We conclude there is. There is more than a scintilla of evidence. There is 

sufficient evidence for the claim to go to “the jury to decide whether the facts, taken 

singly or in combination, satisfy it beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is 

actually guilty.” Barnes, 334 N.C. at 75–76 (cleaned up) (emphasis added).

IV. Conclusion

¶ 47 Defendant could have declined to answer Agent Whitley’s questions pursuant 

to his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, but in deciding to answer, he could 

not knowingly and willfully answer with a falsehood. Bryson v. United States, 396 

U.S. 64, 72 (1969). In this matter, a reasonable jury could conclude that defendant 

knowingly and intentionally committed an act, here making false statements to 

Agent Whitley, that obstructed, impeded, and hindered the investigation and public 

and legal justice. See In re Kivett, 309 N.C. at 670. Because we conclude that there is 

sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict finding defendant guilty of felony

obstruction of justice, we reverse the Court of Appeals’ decision and reinstate the 

felony obstruction of justice conviction.

REVERSED.

Justice BERGER did not participate in the consideration or decision of this 

case.
Justice EARLS dissenting.

¶ 48 Not every lie or misstatement to law enforcement constitutes an obstruction of 

justice. Holding as much would render one of the three elements of common law 

felonious obstruction of justice meaningless: the requirement that justice is, in fact, 

obstructed. See State v. Ditenhafer (Ditenhafer I), 373 N.C. 116, 128 (2019) 

(recognizing that the elements of common law felonious obstruction of justice are that: 

(1) the defendant unlawfully and willfully; (2) obstructed justice; (3) with deceit and 

intent to defraud).

¶ 49 And though on a motion to dismiss for insufficiency of the evidence, we must 

consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and allow it “every 

reasonable inference to be drawn therefrom,” State v. Ditenhafer (Ditenhafer II), 376 

N.C. 846, 2021-NCSC-19, ¶ 28 (quoting State v. Powell, 299 N.C. 95, 99 (1980)), the 

State must still introduce substantial evidence of each element of the crime, meaning 

“such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a

conclusion[,]” Ditenhafer II, ¶ 28 (quoting State v. Stone, 323 N.C. 447, 451 (1988)). I 

do not agree with the majority that the State has met its burden here, specifically 

with respect to the requirement that it must introduce evidence that justice was 

actually obstructed. 

¶ 50 As this Court has recognized, an obstruction of justice is “any act which 

prevents, obstructs, impedes or hinders public or legal justice.” Ditenhafer I, 373 N.C. 

at 128 (quoting In re Kivett, 309 N.C. 635, 670 (1983)). In interpreting statutes that 

have codified similar versions of the common law crime of obstruction, courts in other 
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Earls, J., dissenting

jurisdictions have emphasized that an obstruction only exists if there was a material 

impediment to the administration of justice.1

¶ 51 Mr. Bradsher was convicted of felony obstruction of justice on the basis of two 

statements he made to Agent Whitley during a 6 September 2016 interview that, 

taken in the light most favorable to the State, were false. I agree with the majority 

that a reasonable jury could conclude that Mr. Bradsher’s statements during this 

interview that Cindy Blitzer worked on special projects and that she worked on 

conflict cases were false at the time they were made and were willfully made with the 

intent to deceive. The additional, essential question is whether those statements 

actually obstructed justice. See, e.g., State v. Acklin, No. COA21-385, 2022 WL 29887,

*2 (N.C. Ct. App. Jan. 4, 2022) (unpublished) (vacating judgments where indictment 

“failed to allege an essential element of common law felony obstruction of justice: that 

 

1 See, e.g., People v. Casler, 2020 IL 125117, ¶¶ 41, 53 (reading a material impediment 

requirement into the state’s obstruction statute and holding that the defendant’s provision 

of a false name to law enforcement was not a material impediment); State v. Wilson, 101 Ohio 

Misc. 2d 43, 46 (Mun. 1999) (holding that the defendant’s lie to law enforcement that a fourth 

individual was not in a car that was pulled over by police was not an obstruction under the 

state’s “obstruction of official business” statute and explaining that a “false statement, even 

if made with the intent to hamper or impede, does not violate state law unless the officer is 

actually hampered in some substantial way”). 

Though these cases interpret statutes codifying the crime of obstruction rather than 

the common law crime, they provide helpful guidance. Similar to this Court’s definition of 

obstruction of justice, for example, the statute at issue in Wilson prohibits activity that 

“hampers” or “impedes” public officials from carrying out their duties. Relying on the 

dictionary definitions of these terms, the court held that conduct, even if intended to hamper 

or impede, must actually result in the intended effect in some substantial way, as quoted 

above. See Wilson, 101 Ohio Misc. 2d at 46. 
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Earls, J., dissenting

[d]efendant obstructed, prevented, impeded, or hindered justice”); State v. Anderson, 

No. COA15-269, 2015 WL 7288200, *6 (N.C. Ct. App. Nov. 17, 2015) (unpublished) 

(“[T]o convict a defendant of the common law offense of obstruction of justice, the 

State must prove that she ‘had committed an act that prevented, obstructed, impeded, 

or hindered public or legal justice.’ ” (quoting State v. Taylor, 212 N.C. App. 238, 246, 

disc. review denied, 365 N.C. 342 (2011))).

¶ 52 In support of its position that Mr. Bradsher’s false statements obstructed 

justice, the State presented the following evidence: (1) State Bureau of Investigation 

(SBI) investigator Agent Whitley’s testimony that his lead sheet would have “looked 

a lot different had the information from Mr. Bradsher been different”2; (2) Agent 

Whitley’s testimony that the information Mr. Bradsher provided “expanded the list 

of people that had to be interviewed because [he] . . . had to interview the bulk of the 

employees from each county”; and (3) Agent Whitley’s testimony that he was going to 

have to interview Mr. Bradsher a second time and that “[i]t was going to take a while 

to complete th[e] process.” The majority adds that Agent Whitley had “considered a 

mental process” that changed after his first interview with Mr. Bradsher, in part, 

based on defendant’s false statements. The majority also points out that, as part of 

 

2 This testimony is not useful evidence of obstruction. It is manifest that had Mr. 

Bradsher provided different information, investigators would have prepared different plans 

in response. As explained below, the relevant question does not hinge on how the 

investigation might have been different had Mr. Bradsher given different information but 

rather how it would have differed had Mr. Bradsher never given any information at all. 
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its investigation, the SBI obtained subpoenas for phone records, submitted public 

records requests for keycard access data, and reviewed the documents it obtained.

¶ 53 This evidence fails to demonstrate how Mr. Bradsher’s false statements—

specifically that Ms. Blitzer worked on special projects and conflict cases—impacted 

the course of the investigation in a way that hindered or obstructed it or led it down 

a path it would not have otherwise taken if the interview were never conducted in the 

first place. A closer look at Agent Whitley’s testimony further illustrates this 

deficiency. Agent Whitley testified that he had considered a mental process prior to 

interviewing Mr. Bradsher, but he clarified that “[i]t was so early in the investigation” 

that he did not believe he had yet developed a lead sheet. He further testified that he 

did not go into the interview with Mr. Bradsher “with a preconceived notion” about 

how long the investigation would take. These statements underscore the fact that the 

evidence presents no baseline from which to evaluate how and to what extent Mr. 

Bradsher’s false statements impeded the investigation.

¶ 54 The Court of Appeals’ decision in State v. Cousin further highlights this flaw 

in the State’s evidence. In Cousin, the defendant was charged with obstruction of

justice after providing law enforcement with eight written statements either 

identifying different individuals as the killer in a homicide case or placing different 

individuals at the scene. See State v. Cousin, 233 N.C. App. 523, 530–31 (2014). The 

Court of Appeals held that there was sufficient evidence of obstruction, including 
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because the detective “testified as to the significant burden imposed on the 

investigation,” such as interviewing each individual the defendant identified and 

analyzing whether any of them were present at the scene of the crime. Id. at 531. 

Cousin is an example of a case in which law enforcement was manipulated into 

pursuing a line of investigation that it would not have pursued in the absence of the 

defendant’s false statements. 

¶ 55 The State’s evidence here is not sufficiently specific to show a similar departure 

from the course the investigation would necessarily have taken otherwise. The closest 

it comes is in the form of Agent Whitley’s testimony that Mr. Bradsher’s false 

statements “expanded the list” of individuals who had to be interviewed as part of the 

investigation. If the false statements themselves necessitated the additional 

interviews, and these interviews would not have occurred had Mr. Bradsher either 

never been interviewed or invoked his right to remain silent, the evidence may have 

been sufficient to submit the charge to the jury. But Agent Whitley’s testimony does 

not suggest as much, and it is entirely unclear how, taken alone, Mr. Bradsher’s 

statements that Ms. Blitzer had worked on special projects and conflict cases required 

investigators “to interview the bulk of the employees from each county,”3 and further, 

 

3 Agent Whitley also testified that Mr. Bradsher provided him with a list of individuals 

with whom Ms. Blitzer had worked directly. This list prompted Agent Whitley to follow up 

with those individuals. But, as he acknowledged, this list contained truthful information 

regarding employees who had come in direct contact with Ms. Blitzer. It therefore does not 

and cannot serve as the basis for an obstruction of justice charge. 
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Earls, J., dissenting

that they would not have otherwise undertaken to conduct those interviews. The 

investigation here was to determine whether Ms. Blitzer was, in fact, working the 

hours for which she was being paid. All of the evidence about the steps taken during 

the investigation were steps that would be required to answer that question, with or 

without Mr. Bradsher’s false statements that Ms. Blitzer worked on special projects 

and conflict cases.

¶ 56 Unlike Cousin, where the defendant’s false statements implicating several 

individuals in a homicide required law enforcement to confirm the veracity of 

defendant’s false charges, this case presents a situation where, taken in the light 

most favorable to the State, the defendant intentionally made misleading statements 

and investigators took additional steps to discover whether those statements were 

accurate. But a falsehood that merely requires additional investigation is not the 

touchstone of the inquiry regarding whether an obstruction or impediment existed. 

Rather, the inquiry turns on whether the content of the false statement caused 

investigators to be misdirected or delayed in a tangible way, for example, by being 

led down a path they would not have otherwise taken but for the false information. 

See also State v. Skinner, No. COA14-04, 2014 WL 6901847, *4 (N.C. Ct. App. Dec. 2,

2014) (unpublished) (holding that evidence that defendants’ threats delayed a 

witness from notifying law enforcement personnel about the crimes committed 

against her for approximately eighteen hours constituted substantial evidence that 
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defendants committed an act that prevented, obstructed, impeded, or hindered public 

or legal justice, and, relying on Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, defining 

“impede” as “to interfere with or slow the progress of,” and defining “hinder” as “to 

make slow or difficult the progress of,” “to hold back,” or “to delay, impede, or prevent 

action”). Here, the State’s evidence does not explain how Mr. Bradsher’s statements 

forced investigators to pursue routes of inquiry that they would not have pursued had 

the statements never been made or otherwise delayed them in their efforts to 

determine whether Ms. Blitzer actually worked the hours for which she was paid. Mr. 

Bradsher’s failure to confess the truth in his interview with Agent Whitley cannot, 

without more, be the sole basis of an obstruction of justice charge because he has the 

right to remain silent. Under common law, any lies he tells law enforcement are only 

criminal if they, in fact, obstruct justice. See Strong’s N.C. Index 4th, Obstructing 

Justice § 1.

¶ 57 The majority asserts that this application of the State’s burden would 

improperly place the Court in the role of a factfinder and require the Court to 

contemplate “what evidence the State should have presented.” But requiring the 

State to present evidence of an essential element of the crime does not usurp the role 

of the jury—it simply requires of the State what it is legally obligated to do: present 

evidence that is “necessary to persuade a rational juror to accept a conclusion.” State 

v. Crockett, 368 N.C. 717, 720 (2016). Further, requiring the State to introduce 
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Earls, J., dissenting

evidence of each element of a crime does not inappropriately dictate what evidence 

the State should have presented, but rather what evidence it must present for the 

charge to be properly submitted to the jury. 

¶ 58 Here, requiring the State introduce evidence—whether direct or 

circumstantial—of how Mr. Bradsher’s conduct obstructed the investigation was 

necessary to prove one of the three elements of felony common law obstruction of 

justice. The problem is that the State introduced neither direct nor circumstantial 

evidence of an actual obstruction. Instead, it introduced testimony suggesting how 

the investigation might have been different had Mr. Bradsher told the truth from the 

outset. The majority, for example, points to the fact that Agent Whitley had to alter 

his preliminary plans for the investigation in response to Mr. Bradsher’s statements, 

issue subpoenas for and seize Ms. Blitzer’s work computer, and submit public records 

requests for keycard access data as evidence indicating obstruction. But these 

examples, like the rest of the evidence relied upon, illustrate activities that would 

have been required had Mr. Bradsher simply exercised his constitutional right to 

remain silent. Again, Mr. Bradsher’s misstatements alone are not a crime, and the 

record is wholly devoid of evidence suggesting what role his specific falsehoods played 

in obstructing or impeding the investigation.

¶ 59 Finally, the majority seems to suggest that the State presented circumstantial 

evidence showing that Mr. Bradsher’s falsehoods obstructed the investigation. 
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Earls, J., dissenting

Circumstantial evidence is “proof of a chain of facts and circumstances indicating the 

guilt or innocence of a defendant.” State v. Adcock, 310 N.C. 1, 36 (1984). The evidence 

here fails to support any inferences whatsoever regarding how Mr. Bradsher’s 

conduct obstructed justice. Mischaracterizing insufficient evidence as simply 

circumstantial reduces the State’s well established burden of providing substantial 

evidence to nothing more than a burden in name only.

¶ 60 The State’s evidence only details actions that investigators would have had to 

take anyway if Mr. Bradsher were never interviewed or had simply invoked his Fifth 

Amendment right to remain silent. Agent Whitley’s testimony is not sufficiently 

specific to suggest otherwise. Tasks that would have been conducted regardless of 

whether misleading statements were made cannot amount to evidence of actual 

obstruction of justice. Thus, because the State did not introduce evidence that Mr. 

Bradsher’s statements obstructed the investigation, I dissent from the Court’s 

holding that there was substantial evidence of every element of common law felonious 

obstruction of justice, such that submitting the charge to the jury was proper. The 

State’s evidence, at best, proved nothing more than that Mr. Bradsher lied during his 

interview with Agent Whitley. I would hold that the trial court erred in denying Mr. 

Bradsher’s motion to dismiss for insufficient evidence as to the charge of felony 

obstruction of justice based on allegations of false statements he made to Agent 

Whitley because the State did not produce substantial evidence of actual obstruction.
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Earls, J., dissenting

Justice MORGAN joins in this dissenting opinion.