Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Blog

Recent Reports Show Rise in Charlotte Crime Rates

Published on: July 30, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Some bad news has been reported for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department after data indicates a recent string of crime rate declines have come to an end. Three years of major drops in crime have abruptly stopped and been replaced with glaring jumps in a variety of crimes across the city.

Since the beginning of the year, homicides in the city have increased by an astounding 40% compared with the same period last year. Robberies are up 17% and aggravated assaults have spiked by 14%.

Such a development is unexpected under the new police chief, Rodney Monroe, who took over the department in 2009 and presided over an unprecedented drop in crime. Post #2 criminal image 7.30.12.jpg Almost immediately when he moved into his new role, the numbers began falling. In fact, in 2011, the department announced that the crime rate had fallen to the lowest level since it started keeping consistent records in the 1970s.

When the new numbers were revealed, the department emphasized that the trend in the city over the past three years is still downward for most crimes. The only exception over a three-year period is aggravated assault, which saw a 12% increase.

The approach used by the current police chief has resulted in lower crime than any of his other predecessors. Chief Monroe’s department focuses less on geography and more on identifying specific criminals and locking them up before they can commit additional crimes.

The larger picture across the state shows good news and continuing drops as the North Carolina attorney general announced that statewide crime dropped for a third year in a row. The drop marks a 34-year low and part of several decades of declining crime rates.

Charlotte Approves New Gunshot Detection System

Published on: July 26, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to recent article on WCNC.com, the Charlotte City Council has now unanimously approved the decision to bring a gunshot detection system, known as ShotSpotter, to the city. Police and elected officials are hoping that it will improve public safety and give officers another effective tool to help fight crime.

Currently, there are just under 70 systems in place across the country, including in Wilmington, NC. The system is costly, running around $50,000 for a one-year trial period. Here’s how it works: the detection system triangulates sound picked up by acoustic sensors which are situated on top of buildings, utility poles and other structures throughout a neighborhood. imagesCA0XXN13 7.26.jpg When gunshots are fired, those sensors produce a report which is relayed back to the control room of ShotSpotter where a technician will focus on a computer screen and zoom in on a satellite map to see where the gunshots originated. The technician then analyzes the data and zeroes in on the exact block where the incident took place. After having confirmed that the sounds were indeed gunshots, the tech will then contact the police department and alert them to the gunshots, the time that the shots were detected by ShotSpotter sensors and the exact location.

The system’s technology is incredibly sophisticated and can even be used to determine what type of gun was used and the caliber of the weapon. Proponents of the new technology contend that use of the detection system greatly improves response time and increases community confidence that the police will respond swiftly. For the moment, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is remaining quiet about what part of town the ShotSpotter will be used in.

All this technology comes at a price, say some critics who complain that it invades the privacy of individuals and that it is not always able to distinguish between gunfire and other loud noises. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette told a controversial story of an incident in New Bedford, Massachusetts where a ShotSpotter recording of an argument that took place on a street corner will play an important role in the case against two men charged with murder in a December 2011 killing. At a hearing earlier this year, an assistant district attorney said that the system had recorded arguing and yelling at a busy intersection. An attorney for one of the defendant’s says that if the prosecution uses the recording, it will raise important issues of privacy under the state’s wiretapping statute.

The defense counsel said that the technology opens up a can of worms related to privacy issues and begs the question, “Where will it stop?” The lead prosecutor said that the issue is not so important given that what was recorded was said in public and lacked an expectation of privacy. The government believes the evidence will turn out to be admissible.

Charlotte Man Arrested for Presbyterian Hospital Attacks

Published on: July 21, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

A report out of WCNC.com, reveals that a Charlotte man is now behind bars after a hospital employee was attacked and held at gunpoint just outside Presbyterian Hospital. This recent attack marks the third such incident in as many weeks.

The latest assault took place around 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at the main hospital located in the Elizabeth neighborhood. A female employee was leaving work when she was robbed at gunpoint in an elevator in the parking garage adjacent to the hospital’s orthopedic center. Post #2 criminal image 7.20.jpg Thankfully, the employee was not injured in the attack. Police say the gunman, Lejarris Williams, took the employee’s purse and ran from the scene but was quickly apprehended by Presbyterian Healthcare Public Safety Officers on a nearby street.

Not all the victims have been as lucky as the woman in this incident. An earlier attack left a nurse badly injured after having been stabbed three times and robbed in another hospital parking lot in the early morning hours of June 27th. Later that same day, another employee, Kelli Hannum, says she was robbed in the parking lot.

Presbyterian Hospital began offering a $10,000 reward on June 28 to help find out who was responsible for the first two attacks. The hospital also beefed up security. Many in the area are relieved at the news of the recent arrest but police have not yet said whether Williams is connected to the two previous attacks.

Charlotte Soccer Coach Arrested for Sex With a Minor

Published on: July 19, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to Fox Charlotte, a soccer coach from the Catawba College Hall of Fame and Steele Creek Soccer Club has been arrested and charged with three counts of indecent liberties with a child, crimes against nature and first-degree sex offense.

Under North Carolina law, § 14‑202.1 refers to the crime of taking indecent liberties with children. It states that if a person over the age of 16 and at least 5 years older than the child in question takes or attempts to take any “immoral liberties” with the child, they could be found guilty of a Class F felony. Post #1 criminal image 7.18.jpg Any improper, immoral, or indecent acts done out of the purpose to gratify sexual desires or for arousal could fall into this category of crime. In this case, a child refers to anyone, male or female, under the age of 16.

Investigators said the arrest of Ralph Wager, 69, occurred as the result of a two-month long investigation following one man coming forward and claiming Wager had inappropriate sexual contact with him in the late 1980s. At the time the incident was alleged to have occurred, Wager was a soccer coach and PE instructor at Catawba College in Salisbury and was later inducted into their hall of fame in 2008. The school has since been notified of his arrest and is cooperating with the criminal investigation.

Investigators are not yet revealing the nature of the evidence they have against Wager but say it is strong enough to move forward with charges. It’s also not yet clear if Wager confessed after being questioned by police. He was arrested earlier this week, on Tuesday night, at his home in east Charlotte.

The victim was 9 years old when the abuse began and 12 when it ended. The boy was not directly under Wager’s soccer instruction at the time of the sexual abuse, but was involved in a different athletic activity.

The Steele Creek Soccer Club has removed Wager from its website and say he has been suspended indefinitely as a coach due to the Steele Creek Athletic Association’s zero-tolerance policy. Wager is currently in jail with a $500,000 bond. Wager waived having a court appointed attorney and is now scheduled to be in court for a probable cause hearing on August 1.

Incarcerated Juveniles in North Carolina Prepare for Sentencing Changes

Published on: July 14, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

The Supreme Court recently held that it is cruel and unusual punishment to send a young murderer to prison for life if a judge has not first weighed whether he or she deserves a shorter prison sentence due to his or her youth and the specific nature of the crimes committed. The 5-4 decision struck down laws on the books in some 29 states – including North Carolina – that say life sentences without parole for juvenile murderers are acceptable.

Officials in North Carolina law enforcement say it will take some time for the state to assess the impact of the ruling. Post #2 criminal image 7.15.jpg Most experts in the state say that the number of state prisoners affected by the Supreme Court ruling is around 88.

North Carolina was among 29 states that required life sentences for youth found guilty of first-degree murder. Legislators in the state took action in the final days of June’s legislative session to approve a bill making parole possible for offenders who killed while under age 18 and Governor Bev Perdue signed the bill into law Friday. The new bill would require judges to consider the juvenile’s age, intellectual capacity, prior record, familial and peer pressure and other mitigating factors before handing down the sentence. Life still remains an option, but only for those convicted of premeditated murder. It’s important to note that the decision does not mean it’s unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life in prison, only that statutes that make such sentences mandatory are no longer acceptable.

The bill acts as a major retooling of sentencing laws that defined the state’s criminal justice system for nearly the past 20 years. In 1994, the state basically abolished parole in what was known as the “truth-in-sentencing” reforms. Since then, inmates have been required to finish out their terms.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on two cases of 14-year-old boys, one from Alabama and another from Arkansas, who were given life sentences for their roles in a murder. In the case of young people who participate in homicide, “a judge or jury must have the opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances before imposing the harshest possible penalty.” Justice Elena Kagan wrote, “We therefore hold that mandatory life without parole for those under age 18 at the time of their crimes violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on ‘cruel and unusual punishments.'”

Discreetly recording the police? There’s an app for that

Published on: July 11, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Just last week we did a post about the police in Charlotte’s use of license plate scanners. Now Yahoo has news of a civil rights group that’s trying to turn the tables on police. The New Jersey Branch of the Americans Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has created a new app that will allow users to discreetly monitor and record police activity. The mobile phone program is designed to hold police officers accountable for their behavior while interacting with the public.

The app, dubbed “Police Tape,” allows people to securely and inconspicuously record interactions with police officers. Currently the app is only available on Android devices, but another version for the iPhone will be released later in the summer. The ACLU says the device will act as a critical tool for monitoring the actions of law enforcement officers.

The ACLU’s New Jersey executive director, Deborah Jacobs, said, “Too often, incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens don’t feel that they will be believed.” She says this app should go a long way to remedying that worry.

Unlike most, if not all, recording apps, “Police Tape” disappears from the screen once it has been launched, reducing the likelihood that a police officer will notice that the device has been engaged. cell phone - post 7.11.jpg The app also allows users to electronically transmit the file to the ACLU for safe-keeping and review. Further, the program contains legal information concerning the rights of citizens when confronted by police.

The recent announcement follows not far behind another app by the New York branch of the organization called “Stop & Frisk Watch.” The app does much the same thing, allowing citizens to clandestinely tape the NYPD police during a stop and relay the information to the local branch. According to the New York Amsterdam news, over 2,000 videos have been sent in thus far. Unlike “Police Tape,” when “Stop-and-Frisk Watch” is activated, it also triggers an alert to warn nearby users that a police stop is happening.

UNC Professor Held in Argentina On Drug Charges Close to Release

Published on: July 7, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

According to the News & Observer the UNC-Chapel Hill physicist that is currently being held in Argentina after being found with two kilos of cocaine is saying a personality disorder led him to being so easily lured into smuggling the drugs.

The professor, Paul Frampton, the Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Distinguished Professor of physics and astronomy, flew to South America in the first place only after having been tricked over the Internet into believing that he would be meeting a young model. Instead, when he arrived in Bolivia he was told to carry a suitcase to Argentina and ultimately on to the U.S. The drugs were stored in a kind of false bottom to the suitcase that was otherwise empty. Post #2 criminal image 7.5.12.jpg Frampton was arrested before he was to leave Argentina, while still in the main airport in Buenos Aires. He now faces up to 16 years in prison.

Frampton admits that a normal person would not have so readily agreed to such a scheme. “I’m an outlier in the naivety quotient as well as IQ,” he said. “I buy that. “There were, of course, warning signs that most people would have viewed with great suspicion, and this diagnosis as a defense explains the foolishness,” he said. “But I certainly had no idea there were illegal drugs and certainly had no idea of smuggling drugs to make money.”

Frampton’s defense lawyers said that they hired a forensic psychologist to meet with him while in prison and who was able to diagnose Frampton with a schizoid personality disorder that causes him to be unusually gullible. Friends and family say the news comes as absolutely no shock. His ex-wife, Anne-Marie Frampton, says, “He is totally devoted to physics and to his students, but in the rest of his life he has always been like a child.”

Other friends of the professor said that he has a history of similar unfortunate incidents, including the pursuit of young foreign women on the Internet. A friend and Nobel laureate said that Frampton once persuaded a Chinese woman in her 20s to marry him, but when he flew to China she took one look at him and changed her mind.

Frampton and the school are also now fighting over his pay after UNC decided to stop paying his salary saying that he was unable to do his job from an Argentine prison. He filed suit saying that he was able to perform his work from prison, having written two research papers and properly advised his graduate students via telephone. Just last week an Orange County judge turned down his request for an injunction.

Judge in Trayvon Martin case grants Zimmerman $1M bail

Published on: July 5, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

George Zimmerman, the Florida man charged with killing Trayvon Martin, was given a second chance earlier this week to get out of jail when the judge set bail at $1 million. In his ruling, Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester said that George Zimmerman manipulated the court during his first bond hearing in April and may have planned to flee with the more than $130,000 he collected through a personal website. Though they are pleased he was granted bail at all, Zimmerman’s defense attorneys say the new bail will be hard for their client to come up with.

Post #1 criminal image 7.3.12.jpg Judge Lester says that the increased bail amount is not meant as punishment, but instead it’s meant to allay concerns that Zimmerman intends to flee the jurisdiction. The judge believes that a lesser amount would not guarantee Zimmerman’s presence in court.

Judge Lester decided to revoke Zimmerman’s existing $150,000 bond last month after the state prosecutor accused Zimmerman and his wife of lying to the court about their financial assets during his initial bond hearing to obtain a lower bond. A hearing revealed how Zimmerman instructed his wife on how to transfer money from his bank account into hers and his sister’s while he was in jail, according to recordings of jail calls released by prosecutors.

Judge Lester essentially agreed with the State’s version of events and its portrayal of Zimmerman as a liar. He completely rejected the idea put forward by Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, that Zimmerman lied about his finances because he did not trust the system.

Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, 25, will also now face a perjury charge for allegedly lying about the couple’s finances. She too was briefly jailed before posting a $1,000 bond.

Cheating in UNC Football Program Sparks Criminal Probe

Published on: June 28, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

News from the Charlotte Observer of a suspicious summer course offering at UNC-Chapel Hill shows that a class with no instruction time was created just days before the summer semester began which was filled exclusively with football players.

The records show that in the summer of 2011, 19 students signed up for AMFAM 280: Blacks in North Carolina. 18 of these students were current football players; the other man was a former player. Post #2 criminal image 6.28.jpg The players had the support of their academic advisors who knew there would be no actual instruction. The whole affair is now the subject of a full scale criminal investigation.

Additional records show that football and basketball players made up a majority of nine other suspect classes in which professors listed as instructors deny ever teaching. They are also claiming that their signatures were forged on records related to the courses. This amounts to significant evidence of academic fraud taking place at UNC. An internal search discovered there were 54 such classes, all but nine of which were taught by Julius Nyang’oro, the longtime chairman of the African and Afro-American Studies Department. In each course the students were given one assignment, such as writing a term paper, and told to turn it in at the end of the summer term.

Bubba Cunningham, the current athletic director hired since the scandal took place has said that he is troubled by the news. “I just think this has uncovered some information that quite frankly, the university, we’re not proud of,” he said in an interview. “But we’ll continue to work to ensure that it doesn’t happen going forward.”

The issue began as a result of an investigation into the summer pay Nyang’oro received for the AMFAM 280 course. The search uncovered evidence that the university had paid the professor the standard fee for such a course, $12,000, but that it was contingent on the course being taught in lecture format. Nyang’oro decided to change the course to an independent study. The school is now trying to get the money paid out to the professor back.

Nyang’oro resigned as chairman of the department last September as UNC began an investigation into numerous independent studies and other suspicious course offerings in his department. He had been the department’s only chairman and earned as much as $171,000 per year.

License Plate Scanners Make Big Splash in North Carolina

Published on: June 27, 2012 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Raleigh police have a new weapon in their arsenal to track down criminals: a device mounted on a patrol car that automatically scans license plates, looking for cars that have been reported stolen. The system is known as Automated License Plate Recognition and is made up of four cameras atop the patrol car’s lights bar that are capable of scanning in every direction. The cameras then connect to a computer in the trunk of the car that is linked to the database found in the officer’s computer in the front seat.

The city purchased six of the nearly $19,000 devices and they’ve seen an impact, in just a few weeks they helped find at least four stolen plates and two stolen vehicles. It’s not surprising that they’re effective given that the devices are capable of scanning up to 3,000 license plates in an hour. Post #1 criminal image 6.26.jpg Along with alerting officers about stolen plates, the devices can assist with other crimes that may involve a suspect vehicle, such as missing individuals, bank robberies, or any other crime where a license plate was reported.

Though the devices are new in Raleigh, they’ve been in existence in Charlotte for some time. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department uses the scanners even more aggressively and has a policy which states that the scanners can be used to confirm a criminal suspect’s alibi regarding his whereabouts at a particular time and date and that the scanners can be used for predictive purposes. This means that the scanners can be turned on in high-risk crime areas to focus on unusual traffic patterns. Something the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) believes is profiling.

There are questions though about the incredible amount of data the police will be able to collect. Though the ACLU doesn’t specifically object to the technology, its local spokesman says that it raises tremendous privacy issues. Mike Meno of the ACLU North Carolina says, “The thing that is most troublesome to us is that in most cases the police will retain the data, even if a person is not charged with a crime.” The retained information could be used to help tie someone to a later criminal investigation or lead to tracking of people who have done nothing wrong.

Charlotte’s police are supposed to purge all information retained by the devices 18 months from the date it was recorded. Raleigh won’t hold onto the information for nearly as long, only keeping it for six months. Even this is too long according to the ACLU, after all, if the information is not being used to further an investigation then why keep it around at all?