Former Buncombe County detention officer pleads guilty to impaired driving

Former Buncombe County detention officer Tauqullia Tieshia King, 40, pleaded guilty to impaired driving and was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation after a June 18 conviction, court records show.

King’s plea closes a case that began with her June 13, 2025 arrest in West Asheville, when police accused her of driving while impaired and possessing an open container. The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office was informed of the arrest that same day, and Sheriff Quentin Miller later said he fired King after the office learned of the charge.

The arrest involved an accident with a parked car, adding another layer to a case that already raised questions about standards for detention officers and how quickly the sheriff’s office acts when one of its employees is accused of criminal conduct. King had been employed at the Buncombe County Detention Facility before her termination, placing her case squarely inside the county’s jail system rather than outside it.

The outcome also lands in a year when Buncombe County has faced repeated scrutiny over law-enforcement conduct. In March, The Citizen Times reported that six Asheville-area law-enforcement officers had been arrested in the prior nine months on charges ranging from drunk driving to perjury. In January, the same news outlet reported that the Buncombe County Detention Facility was overcapacity, deepening concerns about staffing, supervision and public trust inside a jail already under strain.

King’s firing and conviction add to a separate Buncombe County detention history that has included recent discipline cases. In May, another detention officer was fired after a policy violation and alleged contraband concealment, reinforcing that the sheriff’s office has been dealing with more than one internal personnel problem.

For county residents, the King case is not just about one impaired-driving conviction. It is a reminder that detention officers, who are entrusted with custody and control inside the jail, are held to public standards that extend beyond the walls of the Buncombe County Detention Facility. When one of those officers is arrested, fired and later convicted, the consequences reach into the broader debate over oversight in Buncombe County’s justice system.