|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A second 911 call raises additional questions about an accident that seriously injured a lobbyist at the December wedding of state Rep. Destin Hall, who’s in line to become state House speaker in January.
As The Assembly reported last week, Cory Bryson, 34, one of Hall’s groomsmen and a legislative liaison for the University of North Carolina-Asheville, fell from the tailgate of a 2023 Ford F-250 truck that was driving Hall to his wedding rehearsal at a country club in southwest Virginia on December 15.
The truck, driven by lobbyist and groomsman Zane Stilwell, didn’t immediately stop, its occupants apparently unaware that Bryson had fallen; Stilwell and Hall returned to the scene about four minutes later.
Another lobbyist and groomsman, Dylan Reel, saw Bryson fall. He stopped his car, called 911, and reported the accident, telling the dispatcher he didn’t know how fast Stilwell was going.
As a result of his fall, Bryson spent two weeks in the hospital and lost vision in one eye, among other injuries. In a statement last week, Hall told The Assembly that he did not want to comment on the accident out of respect for Bryson’s privacy.
No one has been charged with a crime or accused of misconduct. And neither Reel’s call nor police reports obtained by The Assembly mentioned alcohol, though at least two law enforcement officers responded to the scene. But a second 911 call, placed by Bryson’s Apple Watch, suggests that in the accident’s aftermath, at least some people who witnessed Bryson’s fall were immediately concerned about removing alcohol from a vehicle.
Bryson’s Apple Watch contains a feature that automatically dials 911 20 seconds after it detects a collision. The recording of that call, obtained by The Assembly via a public records request, lasts only a minute and mostly contains the sounds of Bryson’s labored breathing and a female dispatcher trying in vain to communicate with him.
But 22 seconds into the recording—approximately 42 seconds after Bryson fell—a male voice is heard in the background saying to another, “You need to get the alcohol out of the car.”
“The what?” a second man asks.
“Alcohol out of the car,” the first man repeats.
The next 15 seconds of the call are redacted, which Virginia law permits law enforcement agencies to do to protect the identities of victims and callers. As the Apple Watch call ends, Reel can be heard in the background on his 911 call.
The identities of the men in the recording are not clear, though they do not appear to be either Hall or Stilwell, since their truck didn’t return to the scene until several minutes after the accident. (On Sunday night, Bryson told The Assembly in a text message that he does not drink alcohol; two other sources have said that as well.) A spokesman for Hall did not comment on the new recording by the time of publication.
Reel, Stilwell, and state Reps. Brenden Jones and Kyle Hall—also members of Destin Hall’s wedding party—did not respond to interview requests last week.
The Washington County (Virginia) Sheriff’s Office provided the 911 recordings and dispatched a deputy to the scene. But a representative told The Assembly last week that the sheriff’s office asked the Virginia State Police to investigate the accident, which occurred at about 5:40 p.m. A state police computer-aided dispatch (CAD) report indicates that a trooper arrived at 6:03 p.m. and “cleared” the scene 29 minutes later.
The CAD report does not detail the trooper’s investigation, discuss which witnesses he or she spoke to, or indicate whether anyone was tested for alcohol consumption. Instead, the report says the trooper would write a more detailed “crash report.”
But the Virginia State Police told The Assembly that only the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles could release the crash report. The DMV, in turn, will only release crash reports to people directly involved in accidents.
In an email, state police spokesman Matthew Demlein confirmed some details of the accident, including that Bryson fell from the back of Stilwell’s truck as it pulled onto a two-lane road by The Olde Farm country club, where Hall’s wedding took place on December 16. Bryson “suffered serious injuries,” Demlein said.
UNC-Asheville Chancellor Kimberly van Noort told The Assembly last week that Bryson “will continue to represent UNC-Asheville at the N.C. General Assembly—including during the upcoming session” that begins on Thursday.
Hall, 36, rose quickly through the General Assembly’s ranks. A Caldwell County lawyer in his fourth term, he chairs the state House’s Rules Committee and was instrumental in Republican redistricting efforts. Soon after House Speaker Tim Moore announced that he was leaving to run for Congress, Hall emerged as his probable successor.
Hall married Madison Skeens, then the assistant director of governmental relations for the N.C. School Boards Association. At least half of their 20-person bridal party consisted of current or former lobbyists, political operatives, and state employees—including two of Hall’s colleagues in the state House.
Jeffrey Billman reports on politics and the law for The Assembly. Email him at jeffrey@theassemblync.com.