Governor Roy Cooper announced this week that he will appoint North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Cheri Beasley to replace Mark Martin as Chief Justice when he steps down from the bench later this month. She will be the first black woman to serve as Chief Justice in North Carolina. Beasley has been on the Supreme Court since 2012, and prior to joining the court she served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and as a District Court Judge in Cumberland County. Cooper will appoint another person to Beasley’s current seat at some point in the future. Keep reading for more news.
Newby Criticizes Cooper. Senior Associate Justice Paul Newby said on Twitter that Cooper’s decision to not appoint him as Chief Justice was a partisan choice that erodes public trust and confidence in a fair judiciary. In the past, the court’s Senior Associate Justice usually has been appointed to fill Chief Justice vacancies, though Governor Jim Martin broke with that tradition in 1986 when he appointed Associate Justice Rhoda Billings as Chief Justice. Newby has said that he will run for Chief Justice in 2020.
FBI Most Wanted. As WRAL reports, a man on the FBI Most Wanted List was shot and killed by an FBI agent this week at a Woodspring Suites hotel in Apex, following an Apex police officer’s investigation of a suspicious car in the hotel parking lot. Greg Alyn Carlson was on the list because he was suspected of multiple armed sexual assaults in California. Carlson posted a $1 million bond in late 2017 by putting his mother’s South Carolina home up as collateral. Soon thereafter he was spotted in various states in the Southeast, at one point escaping a high-speed chase in Alabama. The WRAL report says it currently is unclear whether Carlson was involved in any crimes in North Carolina.
Greensboro Police Controversy. The Greensboro News & Record reports that several city residents told the City Council that they believed Police Chief Wayne Scott should be relieved of his position because of the department’s actions in connection with the death of Marcus Deon Smith while in police custody last year. A previous News Roundup has details of that incident. The citizens told the City Council that in their view the police department had released erroneous or misleading news about Smith’s death. Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughn and members of the City Council have said that they see no basis for firing Scott.
El Chapo. Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known by his nickname El Chapo, was convicted this week in New York on various charges arising from his role as the leader of a Mexican cartel that trafficked massive amounts of drugs into the United States. This New York Times story details the convictions and also has links to other stories from the paper that were published over the course of the three-month trial. This USA Today report says that Guzmán likely will be imprisoned at a federal detention facility known as ADX in Florence, Colorado. The facility currently houses Ted Kaczynski, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Terry Nichols and other high profile offenders.
Wrong Car. If you decide to break into car, you probably should try to avoid choosing one that belongs to a person who goes by the nickname “Armahgeddon.” The Charlotte Observer reports that Daniel Cagle’s day of criminal activity earlier this month took an unpleasant turn when he was “snatched up,” wrestled to the ground, and put in an “arm bar” by Panthers fullback Alex Armah as he tried to break into Armah’s car.
Wrong Car, Again. If you decide to break into car, you probably should try to avoid choosing one that you can’t drive. Motoring news outlet Jalopnik reports that a hapless band of Alabama criminals were foiled in their effort to steal a Honda Civic that had its keys inside when they were stymied by the car’s manual transmission. According to the report, one member of the crew also had been unsuccessful in robbing a convenience store earlier in the day because the cashier didn’t take him seriously. Upon being rebuffed, he apparently purchased a six pack of beer and left the store.
Having taken Evidence and Civil Procedure under Professor (formerly Chief Justice) Rhoda Billings, I would advise you to correct your misspelling of her name before she finds out.
Then you might want to delete my post, too.