The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office has filed its appeal brief in the case of Milton Morgan, the Durham man convicted of drug-dealing after being targeted by a police informant—even though he was not a bona fide drug dealer. In April Morgan appealed his conviction from last year, arguing that the Durham police entrapped him […]
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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Sheriff’s deputies netted in FBI’s fake-drug sting appeal their detention order
Six defendants in the federal drug case against Northampton County sheriff’s deputies—the one that involved no drugs whatsoever—have appealed a judge’s detention order to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. On April 30 a 54-count federal indictment was unsealed revealing drug-trafficking conspiracy charges against several current and former deputies in Northampton. The charges alleged that […]
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Can Raleigh police monitor a suspect by working with cell phone carrier to trace his movement?
A man caught with heroin in his Raleigh hotel room wants the evidence suppressed because the police department monitored his physical movements in real-time by tracking his cell phone. After a jury found Paul Perry guilty of trafficking last February, he appealed the case to the N.C. Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments last […]
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Durham mother charged with killing her toddler
Law enforcement agents yesterday arrested a Durham woman in connection with her toddler’s death last year, in an incident that was ruled a homicide. Melanie Lashay Battle, 22, was charged with murdering her 15-month-old daughter, Tameya Rodgers. The child died as a result of blunt force trauma, according to the medical examiner’s report. Battle was […]
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An Apex man cries abuse after being shot by sheriff’s deputies on his own land
Michael Morgan was livid. Really? he thought to himself. A careless-and-reckless-driving citation on my own damn land? The 32-year-old Apex man whipped open the door to his 3500 Dodge Ram Cummins dual-wheel diesel and climbed in with a sense of purpose. He had a message for the sheriff’s deputy who’d given him that ticket. A […]
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Computer-repair company Raleigh Geeks bilked its customers, judge declares
Raleigh Geeks, a computer-repair company, has been barred from the business and ordered to repay customers, whom they bilked, according to the North Carolina Department of Justice. A Wake County judge today ordered company employees to pay restitution costs and legal penalties totaling $455,000. According to a complaint filed last year, Timothy Staie and Mark […]
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Bill is dead that would have protected defendants from lying informants
Supporters called it one of the strongest bills in the country that would protect criminal defendants from lying jailhouse snitches. But now, the I. Beverly Lake, Jr., Fair Trial Act is on life support, blocked by N.C. House leadership after pressure from the state’s Conference of District Attorneys. “In-custody informants”aka jailhouse snitchesare inmates who claim […]
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NC Court of Appeals: police officer may not run license background check without suspicion of crime
If you’re parked legally on the side of the road, and a patrol officer stops to offer assistance, and the officer asks to see your license, and the officer then takes your license back to his cruiser…tell him to stop. He just violated your constitutional rights. That was the lesson of a N.C. Court of […]
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A wrinkle in the Northampton drug bust—there were no drugs
The details were salacious: stash houses, airport shipments, guns, bribery, extortion, money laundering and millions of dollars in drug proceeds. The occupations of those charged with drug trafficking were even more shocking: seven Northampton County sheriff’s deputies and three North Carolina correctional officers are among those who allegedly conspired to move 115 kilograms (253 pounds) […]
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Bertie County prisoner abuse lawsuit moves forward
An inmate at Bertie County Correctional Institute will have his day in court after accusing three correctional officers of beating him to the point of vision loss during a cell extraction videotaped by one of the guards. Sgt. David Mansfield, one of the three defendants in the inmate’s lawsuit, attempted to block the video camera’s […]