On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Weapons Crimes on Wednesday, May 22, 2013
It's always good to remember that an accused is innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Modern forensic science has exposed hundreds if not thousands of false arrests and incarcerations in the country in recent years. One recent arrest at North Carolina State University of a 21-year-old man for sexual assault offenses is in some ways exemplary of why an arrest should not be taken as proof of anything. Instead, the prosecution must prove each and every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt in order to obtain a conviction.
The attack occurred recently when a woman was leaving the university library at about 4:00 a.m. She reports that a man pushed her from behind into some bushes and committed a sexual assault. The arrest warrant asserts that the man told her he would kill her if she screamed.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Drug Charges on Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Authorities seem to insist on making warrantless searches whenever they think they can, which then exposes their arrest to Fourth Amendment constitutional challenge. That may issue may come up in a warrantless search and arrest of three people for drug charges in North Carolina recently. Two residents of a home in Elizabethtown, along with a man found in their front yard, were charged with numerous drug offenses.
The Elizabethtown police announced a joint operation with probation authorities to conduct what they called a 'warrantless search'. They entered the home of a 23-year-old suspect and his mother based apparently on the fact that the suspect was on probation and subject to warrantless searches. They reported finding 1.5 grams of crack cocaine and a small amount of marijuana inside the residence. The placing of a blanket warrantless search status on someone, or the abuse of such a procedure to seek out drug charges, may be a constitutionally objectionable practice.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in White Collar Crimes on Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Even in a slowly-recovering recession it seems that there ample numbers of people with millions to invest on highly risky ventures. That appears to be part of the scenario surrounding the arrest of a 66-year-old North Carolina man on securities fraud charges. Federal authorities obtained an indictment against the man for running what they characterized as a Ponzi scheme.
They accuse the man, who resides in Graham, of bilking 500 investors of a total of $4.7 million from 2010 through the end of March 2013. They say he ran a Ponzi scheme by inducing victims to put money in his investment companies for the purpose of investing in what is known as the foreign currency market ('Forex'). However, he reportedly put very little of the money into those markets.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Weapons Crimes on Friday, May 3, 2013
College days used to be considered the easy times of a person's life. However, the high incidence of weapons possession and violence at educational venues in recent years raises deep concerns as to the root causes of these problems. In North Carolina, another arrest was made on a college campus recently for weapons charges associated with reported behavior that has the high potential for violent crime.
Rocky Mount police arrested a 22-year-old junior at N.C. Wesleyan College on weapons charges arising of a disturbance reportedly caused by him at the Rocky Mount campus. They charged him with three counts of felony possession of a firearm on educational property and one count of misdemeanor possession of a weapon on educational property.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Weapons Crimes on Wednesday, April 24, 2013
When the police arrest someone on a homicide charge for a recent event to which there were no witnesses, it's reasonable to question the details and validity of the arrest. That may be the situation developing in the recent violent crime arrest of a 21-year-old man as a suspect in the murder of a 42-year-old North Carolina man in his home a few days earlier. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police announced that they arrested the man without incident.
The suspect was incarcerated at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County jail on murder charges. The killing was described by police as a home invasion and murder taking place in the deceased man's home in northwest Charlotte. Police officers at the scene said that three men entered the victim's house and a struggle occurred during which the man was shot and killed.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Weapons Crimes on Wednesday, April 17, 2013
In a country professing to guarantee extensive civil rights to criminal defendants, there's no shortage of innocent individuals being sent to prison or to their death. In North Carolina, another man has been released and found to have had nothing to do with a murder for which he was convicted and imprisoned for 17 years. This is the latest in a string of such discoveries in North Carolina.
The man is a 62-year-old who was convicted of first degree murder and given a life sentence based on virtually no physical evidence and on the testimony of one witness who has since recanted. The man was wrongfully convicted of killing a female university professor in 1988. A wrongful convictions clinic at Duke University took up his case seven years ago, helping to expedite his release in 2012.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Drug Charges on Thursday, April 11, 2013
One of the most generous sources of drug arrests seems to be where police initially stop a car for a traffic violation and then find drugs. This happened again recently in North Carolina when Henderson County Sheriff's deputies stopped a 2002 Honda Accord and found six pounds of what they described as high grade marijuana. They arrested the occupants, a 26-year old female and a 32-year old male, on drug charges of felony possession of marijuana, felony possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana and felony maintaining a vehicle.
The news report of the arrest on drug charges does not state the specific traffic violation that the deputies suspected. The reports say that the deputies became suspicious that the occupants were involved in criminal activity. They then used their narcotics detection canine for an exterior sniff of the vehicle.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Weapons Crimes on Friday, April 5, 2013
Violence is a self-perpetuating emotional explosion that is obviously difficult for most people to control. Once it triggers, it's liable to attack whatever comes in its path. That's what apparently happened in a North Carolina community recently when a domestic violence case also turned into an assault against a deputy sheriff. A 50-year-old man from Hope Mills was arrested and charged with assault by strangulation, second-degree kidnapping and assault on a female.
Cumberland County authorities arrested the man after he committed an assault on his wife. He tried to strangle her by reportedly grabbing her by the throat and pushing her up against a wall. When a deputy tried to handcuff the accused, he became aggressive and in the process the deputy injured his knee. The deputy was taken to a hospital where he is reported to be having surgery. It would not be surprising to see additional charges tacked on relating to the injury to the sheriff.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. on Thursday, March 28, 2013
There is a long history of arrests for insurance fraud involving consumers submitting fraudulent injury claims from automobile accidents and similar events. Intentionally submitting a substantively false claim is one thing, but some of these arrests seem to be questionably premised on a fine-line distinction between normal negotiating tactics and actual fraud. For example, a North Carolina man was recently arrested for insurance fraud regarding a July 31, 2012 car accident.
The 28-year-old Charlotte resident was charged with one count each of insurance fraud and attempting to obtain property by false pretense, according to state insurance authorities. They are still looking for another man who submitted a claim on the same accident. According to news reports, investigators say that the two men 'exaggerated' the amounts of damage to their vehicle and medical injuries in attempting to defraud a major nationally-known automobile insurer.
On behalf of White & Hearne, L.L.P. posted in Violent Crimes on Saturday, March 23, 2013
A crime sweep that results in massive arrests in one fell swoop tend to walk a fine line between admirable police-work and denial of individual liberties. When the police make 120 arrests in one investigation dealing with crimes involving violence and firearms, it is likely that some of those charges will be found to be invalid. About 150 law enforcement officers from a number of agencies recently swooped down on a North Carolina county armed with over 160 arrest warrants designed to stem the tide of violent crime in the area.
The raid in Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County was reportedly a response by police to two homicides in Elizabeth City on New Year's Day and to 10 shootings since then. One man was charged with murder in one of the killings. In this crime sweep, one man was charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling and assault with intent to kill. However, little or no other information was immediately available regarding those arrested and the crimes charged. Police did report that drugs, paraphernalia and guns were seized.
