Ferry worker resigns job in wake of case adjudication

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By Connie Leinbach

An N.C. Ferry Division supervisor charged last fall with breaking into an employee’s home has left that job.

Jed Dixon, interim Ferry Division director, said Friday that Herbert Allen Bliven Jr of Swan Quarter, who had been charged with entering the Swan Quarter home of one of his workers, resigned March 14.

Bliven’s case was concluded March 1 in district court when he pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge sworn out by Harry B. Clark IV, a ferry crew member II, according to court records.

Hyde County Clerk of Superior Court Brandy C. Pugh, whose office is in the county services building in Swan Quarter, said Bliven was given a “conditional discharge” pending completion of certain conditions 

Those conditions state that Bliven receive 12 months of probation and must complete 24 hours of community service within 90 days.  He also is to have no contact with the plaintiff and no convictions during the probation period.

If Bliven complies satisfactorily, Pugh said this charge would not show up as a conviction.

Clark had filed a complaint with the Hyde County Sheriff charging that Bliven, who was Clark’s supervisor at the time, walked into his Swan Quarter home uninvited at around 10:15 a.m. on Oct. 4.

At that time, Clark’s sister, Jerri Ann Wiseman of Belhaven, was babysitting Clark’s child.

Bliven was charged with breaking and entering, according to the complaint.

Wiseman, in her statement to the Hyde County sheriff, said “a man entered my brother’s (Harry Clark) residence without permission.”

She heard the dogs barking and looked out of the house to see the back end of a truck.

“As I picked up my niece and rounded the corner to the kitchen, there this guy stands,” the complaint said. “He asked where Harry was; I then told him and he left without telling me who or what he wanted.”

Wiseman’s statement said Bliven “entered through three different doors (sic) to get into my home.”

Bliven never gave his name, looked surprised and then left. 

Wiseman then called Clark to tell him “a man had entered the house without knocking.”

Clark’s statement said Bliven at the time was his supervisor on the Swan Quarter ferry run.

Tim Hass, Ferry Division spokesman, said last fall that Bliven, who was a ferry operations manager II when this incident occurred, was reassigned Nov. 3 to facilities and maintenance at Hatteras and at the shipyard.