Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Blog
Attorney J. Bradley Smith answering the question: “Do I need to hire an attorney if I have been falsely accused?”
In a terribly bizarre case with North Carolina connections, a Baptist minister from Virginia has been sentenced to two year in prison for staging a fake hate crime attack on his own home. The case of Oleander Cuthrell, 41, shocked many in his rural Chesterfield County community who had initially rallied behind the man following his phony attack.
Authorities say that Cuthrell, minister of music at Gospel Shepherd Baptist Church, poured oil and gasoline across his rental home and set it on fire to avoid pressing financial obligations. At his sentencing, Cuthrell spoke out saying he was ashamed and embarrassed about his behavior, claiming that it was the most irrational decision of his life.
According to prosecutors, Cuthrell, who is black, spray-painted racial slurs across his rental home to distract police attention from focusing on him as a suspect in the house fire. Cuthrell also set fire to a bottle filled with gasoline inside a BMW parked in front of his house, an attempt to create more evidence that he’d been the innocent victim in a brutal, racially motivated attack. After setting the fires and covering the house in racist scribbles, Cuthrell then went back in the home and climbed into bed, waiting for the house to burn.
Thankfully Cuthrell’s oldest son noticed the fire and was able to put out most of the flames in time for the rest of the family to evacuate. Police and FBI officials investigated the case after Cuthrell reported the fire as a possible hate crime, telling police officers that he had been targeted because of his race. The police investigation quickly revealed holes in Cuthrell’s story and he was arrested soon thereafter.
Police officials say the current sweep focused in on 22 people and was designed to reduce violent crime in the surrounding areas. Police officers in Charlotte worked in conjunction with federal agents to nab the suspected criminals, beginning their undercover operation earlier in the summer. Authorities say they targeted individuals who were selling drugs or that were known to possess or sell weapons.
The changes come a year after the ACLU launched an investigation into the actions of the department following complaints that the supposed seat belt checkpoints were actually being used to target Latinos. The ACLU said that they received information that at one checkpoint alone, 15 undocumented immigrants were detained and ultimately taken into custody. Thankfully charges against 10 of those arrested were eventually dropped.
The mayor of Durham has responded to the results, saying that he is instituting an investigation into what appears to be clear evidence of racial profiling by police officers. The action was all prompted by the release of a University of North Carolina study that showed how blacks and Hispanics across the state were vastly more likely to be searched following a traffic stop than their white counterparts, something that has alarmed criminal defense attorneys as well as civil rights advocates.
According to the 
Police say Edwards faces charges of second-degree forcible sex, sexual acts with a student, taking indecent liberties with a minor and crimes against nature. The charges relate to incidents that occurred between 2009 and 2011 when Edwards is accused of molesting at least three boys between the ages of 11 and 14. One of the cases involved a middle schooler who was allegedly attacked while his parent sat just outside the door in the waiting area.
Woodall says that he hopes the trail he is blazing serves as a lesson to other prosecutors and says he hopes other states will follow his attempt at curbing improper agent conduct. Woodall says the activity can be quite harmful to athletes and athletic institutions in the long run and that too many law enforcement officials allow it go on with only a wink and a nod. Woodall says the law is the law and he intends to vigorously uphold it.
According to the aviation director at Charlotte Douglas, any vehicle that is dropped off at the airport’s curbside is subject to being searched. The airport admitted this is something it has been doing for the past year-and-a-half. The airport says that this is part of the facility’s security plan and has been approved of by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Airport officials admit that no signs are currently posted alerting passengers to the possibility that their cars may be searched, but say that are now planning on installing such signs.
After receiving repeated complaints, police say they launched an investigation into the matter and shortly thereafter spotted a man, Robert Morgan, picking up the woman in the parking lot of the church. Authorities say that 22-year-old Jessica Blackmon got into Morgan’s car and then drove to a convenience store and finally to a private residence in the area.