Last Wednesday, Tanasia Futrell sat in a Wake County courtroom clutching a blue binder stuffed with legal documents. The petite teen was dressed in crisp gray slacks and a sweater, her long hair pinned back with barrettes. On two occasions this past semestershortly before and after her 16th birthdayTanasia was cited for fighting at school, […]
John H. Tucker
Bio: John H. Tucker is a staff writer for INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/JH_Tucker
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Fired over shower episode, Wake County detention officer loses lawsuit
One of the area’s odder cases was dismissed in federal court this month when a judge upheld the termination of a female Wake County Detention Center officer who stood next to a naked inmate while he showered. The judge’s ruling wraps up the gender discrimination lawsuit that plaintiff Monifa Gethers had filed against Wake County […]
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Durham man indicted for offering kickbacks to charter school in exchange for contract
A Durham man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for dispensing bribes and kickbacks as part of a public corruption conspiracy involving a federally funded charter school in Dayton Ohio. Carl L. Robinson, 47,who prosecutors say operated an educational consulting business called Global Educational Consultants, along with three others connected with the charter […]
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Woman indicted for murder of Durham firefighter
Forty-one-year-old Crystal Brandi Fox has been charged with the first-degree murder of retired Durham firefighter Donald “Donnie” Watson nearly two years after his death. Fox is currently serving out a meth-related sentence in the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. Watson,74, was found dead in a bedroom at his home on Regis Avenue on July […]
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Durham police officer disciplined in aftermath of Huerta shooting
In a letter to Durham City Manager Thomas Bonfield dated June 20, Police Chief Jose Lopez indicated that DPD has disciplined the officer involved in the suicide of a teen who shot himself with his hands cuffed behind his back while sitting in a police cruiser. On the early morning of Nov. 19, 2014, Officer […]
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Durham residents no longer required to register guns with county
Until last week, Durham County was the only place in North Carolina requiring gun owners to register their firearms at the county courthouse, thanks to a law implemented in 1935. The original law was authored following a string of violence in “shot houses,” where people went to buy cheap liquor. That requirement is now obsolete, […]
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More N.C. teachers report threats and attacks by students than in nearly every other state
A U.S. Department of Justice report released this month suggests North Carolina is struggling with certain measures of public school safety. The study found that 17.1 percent of public school teachers in North Carolina report being threatened or physically attacked by a student in any given year. Only Florida and the District of Columbia reported […]
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Court of Appeals: Duke officers did not use excessive force in 2010 killing outside hospital
A three-member Court of Appeals panel unanimously agreed that two Duke police officers acted legally after a struggle outside Duke University Hospital in 2010 left a man dead from a bullet to the brain. The judges’ 24-page opinion, published this morning, analyzed the case of Aaron Lorenzo Dorsey, who, during a physical tussle with the […]
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Man charged with felony assault after hitting state trooper with golf cart at U.S. Open
The State Highway Patrol has charged Thomas Lineberry, a 59-year-old Wilmington man, with multiple charges for hitting a state trooper with his golf cart on Saturday at the U.S. Open Championship in Pinehurst. Lineberry was charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer; felony hit and run; driving while impaired; and resist, obstruct and […]
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NC Supreme Court rules against intoxicated UNC professor pulled over by fireman
Yesterday the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed a Court of Appeals decision regarding a UNC—Chapel Hill art professor arrested on a DWI charge after a Chapel Hill firefighter pulled her over. The state’s high court sided with the original trial court ruling, which declared that the intoxicated driver, Dorothy Verkerk—who is also a former Chapel […]