Legal Question in Criminal Law in North Carolina

My question involves some prior history leading up to a recent case.

In 2013, my wife and I were expecting our 3rd child, 1 week before her due date, she was stillborn. We were both emotionally crushed by this. 2 years later, again we were expecting a new daughter, and again 1 week before her due date, she was stillborn. This devastated us. We were living in another state at the time, renting a house. We decided to move back to her home state (NC) because all of her family was there and felt like that would be best for emotional support. July, we sold a lot of our stuff and put everything else in storage. While we were loading up the cars, the landlord came by demanding another month of rent. If we gave him that money, we would not have been able to make the move. So I offered for him to hold the title of my motorcycle until we were able to pay him. He took the title and I believed we were at an understanding.

March 17, 2016, after taking the motorcycle out for the first time of the season, I was rear-ended while waiting to turn into my driveway across traffic. I ended up with a 3rd degree burn and a ruptured disc. The county sheriff's dept was on site and took down information from both of us, including vehicle information. I didn't realize at the time that my insurance on the motorcycle had lapsed until the next day. I wasn't worried about it because I wasn't able to ride, and the motorcycle was not drive-able either. 3 days later, the motorcycle was stolen from my driveway. At this point, I waited until the end of the month and opened a policy. I didn't report the bike stolen to the county sheriff and insurance until 2 weeks after that. So at that point, it had been 1 month since the accident. The county sheriff sent someone out to take the information. A few days later I talked to someone at the insurance. The only thing I incorrectly reported was the date stolen. Insurance companies wait a month to proceed to give law enforcement time to locate the stolen vehicle. I wait, heard nothing from the sheriff's department. A month passed and the insurance company contacted me to move forward. They overnighted some paperwork to fill out and asked for me to send the key back with the paperwork. I never filled it out or sent anything back. About a week after the initial call back from the insurance company, a lady stopped by my house and said she knew who took the bike and what they did with it. I didn't ask for her name or any other information, I gave her the case number, name and phone number to the detective assigned to the case. The next day I called the detective to verified if she had contacted him, and she did. Another week later, I received a letter from the State saying the vehicle had been recovered and to contact my local office. When I called the detective and mentioned the letter, he asked me to come in with the letter. After I arrived, the detective asked me about my prior landlord. As soon as he asked, I already knew what he was going to say. My prior landlord had also reported it stolen, and the bike had been recovered 2 weeks after it was stolen from my driveway. I called my prior landlord about it, and it was a misunderstanding, he thought I was giving him a $5k bike for $800 of rent. As for the insurance claim, I did not continue with it, never filled out the paperwork and never sent it back with the key. I never had an interest in getting money out of them since I was in the process of getting a settlement from the accident, but I believed they may have had other resources to possibly track down the bike. This is now sometime in July or August. September the DA brought up charges on me for interfering with an ongoing investigation and insurance fraud. I hired a local lawyer, one I received an advertising letter from. I met with him right after I had surgery for the ruptured disc and described everything I have described here. After 8 months of this lawyer pushing for continuance after continuance, sat in the courtroom for a couple of these, he finally met with me for the 2nd time after work and had a plea bargain from the DA to be heard in court the next morning. 2 years probation, $1k fine, and 100 hours community service to be done at a police station for "wasting police time". I agreed at the time, but really didn't have much time to think it over. In the courtroom the next morning, while sitting there and listening to the DA's statement, there were several inaccuracies, A couple of them I whispered to my lawyer and he said not to worry about it. Since then, I have actually had time to think about it and believe everything should have been dismissed and also believe the lawyer I initially hired was not representing my interests in the case.

From the time of the accident to the time I received the letter from the State that the vehicle had been recovered was about 4 months. If my prior landlord had reported it stolen, why was it not identified at the time of the accident? Then, when I started the insurance policy, were there no flags with them? And again, when I reported it, nothing from the sheriff's office about it being previously reported. In fact, I didn't learn that it was recovered until getting the letter from the State!! This is why I have an issue with "wasting police time". It seems like they didn't really do anything at all until I contacted them with that letter from the State, and no where near 100 hours worth. I also believe the insurance fraud should have been dropped because the sheriff's dept should have caught the existing stolen report at the time of the accident. I also have a feeling the insurance company already had this information and was leading me on. And last, the lawyer I had hired, I only talked to twice in the entire process. The couple times I sat in the courtroom expecting something to happen with my case, ended up being continued, and I did not really need to be there. Also, while sitting in the courtroom, this lawyer would always have a full list of clients named off as for being present or not, at least a dozen each time. After thinking back, I should have looked outside the county for representation to eliminate any bias. He works with this court and DA on a daily basis and I do not believe he spent the time needed on my case or had my interest in the case to begin with.

Ultimately, my question here, after reading this: Do I have a case vs the sheriff's department for dereliction or neglect? Do I have anything vs the lawyer I hired for not representing my interests? What kind of lawyer should I be looking for in this matter? I'm sure I could come up with a hundred possible questions related to all this.

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