When Your Name Is Your Only Crime: Cherokee Sheriff’s Office Faces Lawsuit

Nickie Sledge was standing in front of her grandson when officers arrived on December 21, 2024. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office had directed them to arrest her for elder abuse.

They had the wrong person.

The 49-year-old Black grandmother from DeKalb County was arrested and charged with exploiting a disabled elderly man. The actual suspect was Nikki Sledge—a 48-year-old white woman from Covington, Kentucky.

Different ages. Different races. Different people. Same name.

Now Sledge is planning to sue those involved. Sledge has hired civil rights attorney Harry Daniels. Her attorneys call it a case of gross negligence that never should have happened. They are preparing a lawsuit.

The charges against Sledge were dismissed on February 17, 2025, nearly two months after her arrest. The reason given: “insufficient evidence/lack of prosecutorial merit.”

Sledge spent three days in jail.

The Original Investigation

The case began legitimately. In early 2024, Barbara Richards reported financial abuse involving her partner, Billy Ray Chavis, a 73-year-old cancer patient in Woodstock.

When Richards was hospitalized in late 2023, Chavis was cared for by his grandson Joshua Sledge and Joshua’s wife, Nikki Sledge from Kentucky. After Richards returned, she discovered unauthorized charges totaling more than $3,000 on Chavis’s debit cards. A safe containing cash had also disappeared from her home.

Detective Jeffrey Donley investigated. He reviewed Walmart surveillance footage and processed evidence. On April 29, 2024, he swore out warrants for both Nikki Sledge and Joshua Sledge.

The warrant described the suspect as a white woman born in 1976, last known address in Florence, Kentucky.

The Arrest

Eight months later, officers executed the warrant. But they arrested the wrong Nickie Sledge.

The woman taken into custody was Black, born in 1975, and lived in DeKalb County, Georgia. She had no connection to Billy Ray Chavis, Barbara Richards, or the alleged crimes. She was arrested in front of her grandson.

The court documents don’t explain how officers arrived at the wrong person. The differences weren’t subtle—different race, different age, different location. Yet somehow, a shared name was enough.

Sledge was charged with two counts of abuse, neglect or exploitation of a disabled or elderly person. She was processed, strip-searched, and booked. Her name appeared in court records associated with elder abuse.

The Dismissal

On February 17, 2025, the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges. The warrants against Joshua Sledge and the actual suspect, Nikki Sledge from Kentucky, were also dismissed the same day.

No public statement was issued by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office. No explanation beyond the legal boilerplate. No indication anyone apologized or that corrective action was taken.

Legal Action

Sledge’s attorneys argue this was more than a simple mistake. They say officers failed to verify basic identifying information before making the arrest—standard procedure designed to prevent exactly this kind of error.

The warrant listed specific details: race, date of birth, last known address. None of them matched the woman arrested. Yet officers proceeded anyway.

For Sledge, the consequences extend beyond the arrest itself. Even with charges dismissed, the record remains. The booking photos. The case file. Her mugshot shared on social media.

The dismissal doesn’t declare her innocent. It simply means prosecutors decided not to proceed. For anyone searching her name, the distinction isn’t clear.

A System Problem

Mistaken identity arrests are rare, but frightening when they happen. The National Crime Information Center database contains millions of warrant records. When officers run a name and date of birth, they get a hit. But if they don’t verify every piece of identifying information—race, height, weight, address, distinguishing marks—they can arrest the wrong person.

The safeguards exist. Officers are trained to verify information beyond a name match. The question in Sledge’s case is why those safeguards failed—or whether they were used at all.

For Nickie Sledge of DeKalb County, the legal battle is just beginning. The arrest took two months to correct. The lawsuit may take years to resolve. But her name—the same name that got her arrested—is now attached to a case that will follow her regardless of the outcome.

Her name was enough to arrest her. It shouldn’t have been.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office says it has not yet been served with the lawsuit.