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GREENSBORO — A judge sent hit-and-run driver Grayson Dawson back to prison for another six weeks after the state Department of Correction acknowledged mistakenly setting her free Dec. 9.

The Eden woman received a sentence of 14 to 17 months behind bars after pleading guilty in August 2010 in the death of Summerfield bicyclist David Sherman.

Superior Court Judge Lindsay R. Davis returned Dawson to state custody Friday after ruling that corrections officials lacked authority to undercut the minimum of 14 months’ imprisonment he had imposed last year.

“But this is a serious failure on the part of the Department of Correction,” Davis said from the bench, adding that he hoped the agency would discipline officials responsible for erroneously freeing Dawson.

The 50-year-old Dawson’s lawyer, Locke Clifford, urged the judge to let her keep the newfound freedom, arguing that there was no basis in current law for undoing an official release document.

“Ms. Dawson was granted unconditional release from the NCDOC by Nichol Moss, releasing official, on Dec. 9 after serving her sentence in an exemplary way for 12 months and 10 days, plus one day of credit for time served at the Guilford County Jail,” Clifford said.

As part of the early release, state officials also signed a document returning to Dawson “all rights of citizenship,” including the right to vote, Clifford said.

But chief Assistant District Attorney Howard Neumann prevailed by arguing that a judicial sentence with a minimum level of 14 months requires the convict to serve at least that amount of time before the inmate can be freed.

“She has not done that,” Neumann said. “If that sentence means anything, it should be completed.”

The events of Oct. 24, 2009, ended in the death of avid cyclist Sherman, 55, whom friends described as a kind-hearted man known for both his athletic skill and musical talents.

Dawson’s car crossed the center line on a section of North Church Street near N.C. 150, striking the bicyclist head-on while he was on a Saturday afternoon recreational ride.

She said later that she thought she had hit a deer and that her perceptions might have been dulled by painkillers she was taking for a bowel disease, ulcerative colitis.

Dawson was charged with felony hit and run, misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and driving without a license in November 2009, after several Rockingham County residents alerted crash investigators that her SUV had suspicious damage to its front end.

She pleaded guilty nine months later.

The Department of Correction erred in releasing her early because it did not accurately track when she reported to begin serving her sentence last year. She initially was to begin serving it Oct. 11, 2010, but medical treatments for the ulcerative colitis pushed back the date she actually reported by seven weeks.

State prison officials did not update her start date, essentially giving her credit for almost two months she had not served.
Clifford argued that it was unfair for state officials to reverse course on her release when the error lay entirely on their shoulders. Dawson also spoke briefly, telling the judge of several community college courses she took while imprisoned in Raleigh and, later, near Lexington.

Dawson sat in the courtroom with her husband, Blake, who said after the hearing that highlights of her week of freedom included attending church, meeting a new granddaughter and accompanying her pregnant daughter to the doctor’s office Friday morning to learn that a grandson is on the way.

“She’s a strong woman,” he said. “She’ll get through it, I’ll get through it and it will be over.”

A bailiff handcuffed Grayson Dawson at the end of the hearing and officials said she would be returned to prison near Raleigh. Her correct release date now will be Jan. 27, including credit for her week of erroneous freedom, they said.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com