Politics

School board member draws fire for bailing out accused child rapist

Henderson County School Board member Shelia Dale, in white blouse, listens to fellow board member Stephanie Cantwell during the Oct. 12 meeting of the board.

By Bill Moss, Published: October 20, 2026

A Henderson County School Board member posted a $62,500 bond for a Pisgah Forest man who was subsequently convicted of 12 counts of rape of a child and sentenced to 60 years in prison, court records show.

Shelia Dale, a first-term board member seeking re-election on the Nov. 3 ballot, co-signed a surety bond for Christopher Raymond Smith, 46, on Sept. 15, 2025, after Smith was charged with statutory rape and sex offenses involving a 14-year-old junior firefighter he had groomed at the Etowah Fire & Rescue, according to official records and reporting by the Hendersonville Lightning. Dale also was listed as a witness for Smith’s defense for the week-long trial that ended Sept. 11 with a quick guilty verdict on all 12 counts. A judge sentenced Smith to at least 60 years and up to 87 years in prison.

District Attorney R. Andrew Murray said in a news release on Sept. 14 that Smith had gained the trust of the victim’s parents through his job and had used that trust to gain access to the child.

“No one is above the law, and time is no deterrent when it comes to protecting our children from those who prey upon them,” Murray said.

The young victim was Bradley Huggins, the son of former Etowah Fire & Rescue Chief Mike Huggins. Huggins, who is 30, consented to be identified because, he said, he had testified openly in court and had gone to the law willingly after being silenced for years.

The offenses started in 2011 when Bradley was 14 and continued until he was 16. Thirteen years after the abuse had begun, Bradley sat down in an hours-long interview with a sheriff’s detective and told his story.

Dale’s ‘personal life not an issue’

Dale’s role in the case drew public attention for the first time when a resident raised questions during the public comment period of the regular meeting of the Henderson County School Board last week.

“This person received a 60-year sentence in 12 minutes from the jury,” the speaker, Virginia Tegel, told the board on Oct. 12. “I am confused and concerned. I expect all board members to act in the best interest of the children and our community, first and foremost, keeping them safe.”

No board member responded at the time, a practice that board Chair Amy Lynn Holt said is official policy.

“The Henderson County Board of Public Education acts as a corporate body in official meetings rather than through individual action,” Holt said in a response to the Lightning’s questions she issued after consulting with the school board’s attorney. “Pursuant to Board Policy 2310, public comment is a time for the Board to hear from citizens about issues related to our schools and the policy emphasizes that ‘Board members will not respond to individuals who address the board except to request clarification of points made by the presenter.’”

As for Dale’s decision to post bond for an accused child rapist, Holt said: “Ms. Dale is an elected public official and actions in her personal life are not an issue for the School Board to officially address unless such actions directly violate law or policy.”

Only board member Blair Craven, a former chair who chose not to seek re-election, responded individually to the Lightning’s request for comment. Craven referred to both Dale and to Michael Absher, who served on the board from 2016 to 2020 and has been jailed since July 2025 awaiting trial on multiple child-sex abuse felonies.

“In the past couple years, unfortunately, our school board has had a (former) member that is now sitting in the Henderson County jail accused of sexually assaulting children, and now we have a sitting school board member accused of bailing out a convicted child-sexual predator,” he said. “I believe that a school board member’s job is to protect children, and I think that these two instances do the exact opposite of that.”

Voters should consider ‘extremely poor judgment’

Among the five candidates on the ballot for three seats on the school board, only Mary Ellen Kustin responded.

“It’s not right for our school board members to say they are protecting children while bailing out potential child predators,” she said. 

Asked whether she agreed that Dale’s action was “not an issue for the school board to officially address,” Kustin, a Democrat, said: “Henderson County voters have an opportunity right now to address the issue of Ms. Dale serving in a leadership position of our school system.”

The Henderson County Democratic Party also issued a statement demanding accountability.

“We are concerned that our all-Republican school board chose to not respond to these allegations at the meeting,” Chair Linda Ford and Vice Chair Drake English said. “And if the allegations are accurate, we are more concerned that the school board member exercised extremely poor judgment which the voters in Henderson County should be allowed to consider. The board’s inattention to this matter is troubling.”

Dale was touted as anti-sex trafficking speaker

Six months after she bailed out an accused child predator, Dale was scheduled to appear at an event focused on child-sex abuse. Last February, she was promoted as a featured speaker at a two-day event organized by Awake & Bold, an Asheville-area nonprofit that holds town halls and community meetings focused on combating child sex trafficking. The event was held at Horse Shoe Farm in March. (The Lightning was unable to confirm whether Dale did indeed appear at the event.)

Among other speakers scheduled to present at the Awake & Bold event, according to a news release emailed to the Lightning last February, were Juan O. Savin, a prominent figure in the QAnon conspiracy movement, and Leigh Dundas, an attorney who was investigated by the FBI in connection with his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

‘Chris had unlimited access to me’

Bradley Huggins, the victim we spoke with, said the older firefighter befriended him as soon as he became a junior firefighter — on his 13th birthday.

“Chris had almost unlimited access to me,” Bradley said Monday night. “I spent a lot of time there. It was my dad’s life and we were pretty much always there. It started with grooming right after I joined the department, and the sexual abuse started when I was 14 and lasted until I had already turned 16 years old. But my dad was the assistant chief at the time, and the abuse just continued on and on. It happened on and off of fire department property.”

If anyone did harbor suspicions, in the close-knit environment of a rural firehouse, Bradley believes, no one wanted to rock the boat.

Chris “was very good friends with both my parents,” he said. “You know, the fire department is a very close community. It’s a brotherhood essentially, and so Christopher knew my parents very well, and he was very close with my dad, and used the very close relationship to gain my dad’s trust.”

Although his parents learned of the abuse when he was 16, he said, no one reported the offense until Bradley himself made the call in March of 2024. Two and half years later, Christopher Raymond Smith stood trial.

“When the closing arguments were done, it took a jury 12 minutes to come back with a guilty verdict on all 12 indictments,” he said.

Smith’s “date of release from index sex offense,” a post-sentencing court document says, is “on or about Sept. 11, 2086.”

‘An unforgivable act of betrayal’

Bradley finds it impossible to believe that, as a close family relative, Dale knew nothing about her nephew’s involvement with a young teen-age victim at the Etowah firehouse.

“You can’t tell me she didn’t know anything that was going on,” he said. “She made the decision to support a pedophile, even though he wasn’t yet convicted at the time of her bailing him out. … He should have stayed in jail. She was his only lifeline, and she accepted to bail him out, knowing that she had an oath to protect the kids in the community.”

Bradley said he hopes voters look seriously at the board member’s decision when they decide whom should lead the county school system.

“She is a board member of the Henderson County public schools,” he said. “She took an oath when she sat in that seat for the very first time to put her personal beliefs aside to protect every single child in that community.

“By doing what she did, knowing the past of the very man that she bailed out, in his abusive past and predatory past, it literally is a slap in the face to every single parent that she swore to protect,” he added. “It’s an unforgivable act of betrayal on students and parents in the community.”