Law Office of Christopher Houston Rumfelt

04/23/2025

We are experiencing problems with our phones in the office today. If you are unable to reach us by phone, please email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause!

11/06/2024

Today is a new day. The people have spoken. I will do today and moving forward what I've done for years. I'll continue to fight for what I believe in, and for what I hope for my community and my nation: freedom and fairness for all people.

I've never asked anyone who they vote for, what party they are aligned with, what church they attend, or whom they love. Regardless how more difficult this outcome may make my job become, I will still strive to point out injustice, oppression, and overreach by the government, and advocate for anyone whose rights have been infringed regardless of ideology, religious beliefs, s*x, race or national origin.

10/11/2024

Hopefully this will be the final update from my office.

Phones and internet seem to be stable now and fully restored. My understanding is that courts in McDowell and Rutherford Counties will resume operating on a normal schedule next week (10/14/24). If you had a court date cancelled between Friday 9/27/24 thru today, 10/11/24, you will be given an new court date.

My office will also be back on a normal operating schedule.

We are currently attempting to create an updated calendar of all our clients who had court dates cancelled with their new court dates. The courthouse should also be mailing out notices to last known addresses of everyone who have new court dates. If my office represents you and you fall into this category and received a notice, please contact us, preferably via email at [email protected] to check in and update your information and new court date to insure we have it.

Courts in Mitchell and Yancey still appear to be closed through October 31, 2024. Avery and Madison Counties have not yet announced schedules for next week, or whether or not they will reopen.

For latest updates on those counties you can go to www.nccourts.org and check "closings and advisories". You can also check your status for new court dates from the same website.

I want to thank each and everyone of you for your understanding and patience as we recovered from all the disruptions Helene created. I also hope we all are able to continue recovering from this horrible tragedy our community suffered. Personally I have never felt more proud to be a resident of Marion and McDowell County than I have been the last two weeks. The outpouring of love and support, and the overwhelming response to those most impacted by the destruction, by so many of our people has been awe inspiring. May God bless each and everyone of us!

Providing access to court services and information. Simpler — today and tomorrow.

10/07/2024

10/7/2024 UPDATE ON OUR OFFICE COMMUNICATIONS OUTAGE:

I want to thank all my clients for your patience and understanding as we attempt to get our communications back up and running, and also apologize to anyone who has been unsuccessful in contacting us. I know our situation is just a minor one compared to what so many others have experienced/endured/suffered during this unprecedented disaster. As a community we WILL get through this and be stronger as a result of our resilience, and the strength and determination of our families, friends, neighbors and fellow residents of this beautiful area we call home.

As of this morning phone and internet service is still inoperable at my office. Spectrum still does not have a definitive ETA for restoration. For anyone who has attempted to call and received an "inbox is full" message and then disconnected I sincerely apologize. If that has happened to you, it if you had been able to leave a voice message and have not received a response please reach out via email to:

[email protected]

We are going to be attempting to set up some type of possible call forward system and mobile hotspot today as a temporary fix until our service is restored if we can get some type of reliable cell signal and strength inside our building to support it.

We are also attempting to find a way to gain access to the inbox and bypass the security measures that had been put in place to restrict any access to it remotely from any device except the office phone. This was done proactively when our system was set up in order to protect client privacy and to satisfy certain insurance provisions surrounding data/privacy issues. Obviously we never anticipated a situation like this where all communications would be down for 10 days.

The only possible issue with that is my ongoing issue with losing all cell service each time my cell phone receives a call or attempts to make a call, and then having to restart the phone to regain a signal. I don't know if that is just an isolated issue with my phone, or is something more widespread with my carrier, US Cellular. I will attempt to use a different phone with a different carrier to attempt to combat that issue and will update once we have phones and internet in the office.

10/05/2024

Court update for McDowell and Rutherford Counties for the upcoming week of 10/7/2024 thru 10/11/2024:

McDowell County Courthouse will be open during limited hours from 10AM until 2PM this week to allow those in need of emergency filings to be able to file. As of the time of this post the courthouse still has no phone or internet service. COURT SESSIONS ARE CANCELLED FOR MONDAY AND TUESDAY. NO COURT WAS SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY THRU FRIDAY DUE TO A STATE DISTRICT COURT JUDGES CONFERENCE BEING PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED. First appearances for those arrested will still occur. A schedule for next week will be announced later this week and notices will be sent out to those whose court dates were cancelled.

Rutherford County Courthouse will OPEN on a normal schedule. DISTRICT CRIMINAL COURT WILL RESUME MONDAY AND TUESDAY, AND DSS/JUVENILE COURT WILL RESUME TUESDAY, ALL ON NORMAL SCHEDULES. AS WITH MCDOWELL NO DISTRICT COURT IS SCHEDULED WEDNESDAY THRU FRIDAY IN RUTHERFORD DUE TO THE JUDGES CONFERENCE. A schedule for the next week will be announced later in the week, but anticipate all courts resuming as normally scheduled beginning 10/14/2024. Notices will be sent out to those whose court dates were cancelled.

10/05/2024

As I have repeatedly said, I will NOT post any rumors on my pages. This new report from WRAL out of Raleigh is impossible to ignore. I am not sharing this to attempt to undermine or discredit any official statements but to attempt to provide information.

Two things to point out. First, this cadaver dog team from the Nash County, NC Sheriff's Office is reported to have discovered 14 bodies. Secondly on the day the reporter travels with them they are clearly on Lake James and the reporter clearly states they were in McDowell County.

Obviously Lake James covers both McDowell and Burke and they most likely did searches in both counties. Also, this same team appears to have did some searches around Lake Lure as well as some land searches in unnamed places, and they haven't been exclusively on Lake James.

However, this news report absolutely does not fall into the realm of rumor. The big question is whether those 14 tragically lost lives were McDowell County residents or not. The reporter did a poor job of being clear about that.. If so, we need to be given an explanation why it hasn't been listed in total fatalities report. If they were found in Burke, or earlier in Lake Lure area, that needs to be clarified.

I don't believe an obvious fatality has to be identified, and family notified, before that fatality is counted. With other disasters, such as a plane crash, bus crash, tornado, school shooting, etc., authorities routinely list a number of killed/injured without releasing identities before notifications are given to families. That should be the policy here.

Some disaster recovery teams are tasked with recovering bodies of those swept away in mudslides, landslides or drowned in the historic flooding from Tropical Storm Helene. It's a sometimes traumatic assignement.

10/04/2024

McDowell County Schools will reopen on Wednesday 10/9/2014 with the exception of Old Fort Elementary. Schools will operate on 2 hour delay next Wed thru Friday. There will be a community meeting conducted in Old Fort next week to discuss the need for alternate location for Old Fort Elementary students due to the extensive damage to the building, with hopes of getting those students back into school the following week.

No definitive word regarding court schedule next week for McDowell County Courts as of now.

10/04/2024

I'm not posting any rumors, or anything which can't be fact checked on my page. There is enough of that going around without me adding to it. If it comes out later that our local elected leaders have engaged in a lie or cover up there will be a day of reckoning for them and they know that. They would have zero reasons to mislead us.

Just curious for those sharing such wild rumors, are you claiming Sheriff Ricky Buchanan and other local McDowell, Marion and Old Fort leaders are intentionally misleading people and engaged in a cover up in our county?

For your theories to be true, then that has to be true. These numbers for McDowell are coming directly from EOC, which the sheriff is one of the leaders responsible during a time of crisis like this.

Politics aside, and many of you know personally I am a member of a different party than the one in power here, I absolutely don't believe for one minute the Sheriff, MPD, all the local fire chiefs, EMS director, McDowell Commisioners, Marion Mayor and City Council members, Rescue Squad Director, etc are engaging in any conspiracy to purposely mislead people when the truth would inevitably come out. That makes zero sense.

Instead of attempting to destroy faith in our local leaders, now more than ever, it is imperative we have factual and reliable information shared to our very affected and very afraid citizens.

10/04/2024

As of 8:25AM on Friday 10/4/2024 the following counties and other areas have CONFIRMED the following number of Helene related deaths. These are only CONFIRMED deaths. These numbers are definitely subject to change. I know there are all kinds of wild rumors circulating, which does no good presently to circulate and I will NOT spread any unconfirmed rumors on my pages.

*McDowell County 1 (as of 815AM Friday) 21 missing (as of 3PM Thursday 10/3/2024)
*Buncombe County 72. 200 plus missing
*Henderson County 9
*Haywood County 4
*Rutherford County 2
*Mitchell County "Multiple"
*Yancey County 8
*State of South Carolina 27
*Nationwide 255

10/03/2024

PSA
There are posts circulating which originated out of South Carolina that there are 200 kids/babies separated from their families and seeking refuge in a church in McDowell County, NC, trying to slam our government officials. THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE LIE.

If there was just one displaced child separated from family in this county seeking refuge I can assure you the full force of everyone at the EOC, including the National Guard, would be in full blown response mode. Please don't share these type of lies when we have enough truths to be concerned with and helping out.