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Blog and Media Roundup - Sunday, January 25, 2009; News Roundup
Topic Started: Jan 25 2009, 05:04 AM (368 Views)
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1079722.cfm

Trinity Heights neighbors want partying controlled
BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Jan 25, 2009

DURHAM -- Talks between Duke University, Trinity Heights residents and city officials are winding down with the residents poised to formally request that the school take more responsibility for policing the behavior of students who live off campus.

The residents also intend to ask Duke to "take long-term steps to move student partying out of neighborhoods and onto campus, including building fraternity houses on campus," according to a draft of the neighbors' report given recently to city officials.

"Fraternity parties don't belong in neighborhoods," the draft said, adding that Durham leaders should help press for the changes "both to protect the quality of life of [their] residents and to protect central city neighborhoods from disinvestment."

The three-way talks have been under way since August and are scheduled to conclude next month. They began after 13 Trinity Heights residents complained that a party-house scene had emerged in their neighborhoods after members of a couple of fraternities began renting houses there.

Duke only allows seniors to live off campus and doesn't have true fraternity houses on its property.

Parties in the rentals have caused trouble this school year on both Clarendon and Onslow streets, said Christine Westfall, a Trinity Heights resident and co-author of the draft report.

Westfall said she and other residents have been forced to call Durham police regularly this school year to quell loud late-night parties. At least one of those calls sparked what she termed "a confrontation" between students and police.

The incident occurred on Clarendon Street. A neighbor who witnessed it "saw the students living in the house yelling at police officers," Westfall said.

The neighbors want Duke police to take the lead in policing the party scene because city officers have other, more serious problems to deal with, Westfall said. Also, "It's not fair for the city to be shouldering a [financial] burden when it's a university problem and they have jurisdiction," she said.

An extended-jurisdiction deal with the city gives Duke police authority to patrol the neighborhoods adjoining the campus. The Duke University Police Department's writ extends east to North Duke Street, half a mile beyond the areas Westfall said the problem affects.

Neighbors want Duke police to adopt the same hard-line, "zero tolerance" attitude to noise and other nuisance-law violations that their counterparts from the city do. They also believe Duke officials will have to hire more police officers if it is to patrol the area effectively.

As for the fraternity houses, residents believe party-house scene persists because the on-campus dormitory space that's now available to the groups is cramped and "not designed to accommodate parties," Westfall said.

But residents insist the surrounding neighborhoods aren't suited to host them either. They fear that left unchecked, the scene would spur owner-occupants to flee, putting the district's housing stock on a downward spiral toward blight.

Duke officials have asked neighbors to make several minor factual corrections to the report, so that it uses the correct terminology in describing the on-campus bureaucracy and the correct numbers of Duke police who work each shift.

Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said Friday that he wouldn't comment yet on the report's recommendations.

"I am not prepared to respond to any of it until we have the [last] meeting," Moneta said. "It would be inappropriate for me to have a public conversation until we actually have one with the group with which we're meeting."

But he, Westfall and City Manager Tom Bonfield all said the talks have been, to use Bonfield's word, "positive."

"We have had honest and forthright conversations," Moneta said.
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1079662.cfm

Excerpts from draft report on off-campus party houses
Jan 25, 2009

The following are excerpts from a draft of the report, recommending policy changes to quell the off-campus party house scene, that Trinity Heights residents will present to Duke University and city officials next month:

"About 800 Duke undergraduates (half the senior class) live off-campus in Durham every year. Only a small fraction of these organize disruptive parties. But this small group -- at least three houses in Trinity Heights, for example -- generate frequent 911 calls to [the] Durham Police Department and Duke's campus police. Ultimately, the never-ending pattern of these problems has caused long-term residents to move out of our neighborhoods. Both the city and Duke should understand that these party houses have caused disinvestment in the central city, and will continue to do so unless policy changes are made to mitigate this problem."

"The 2006 lacrosse incident thrust the disruptive and abusive behaviors caused by Duke party houses into a harsh national media spotlight. Although this event had enormous negative consequences -- legal and financial -- for both Duke and Durham, it is by no means clear that Duke has yet enacted any major changes of policy for off-campus student life in response."

"It is time for Duke to take more responsibility for the behavior of its students off-campus. Residents should not have to bear the burden of policing problems caused by party houses year after year."

"Duke campus police has a stated mission to 'keep the peace.' We recommend they adopt the Durham Police Department's 'zero-tolerance' policy toward noise and behavior problems arising from Duke student party houses. Enforcement of zero tolerance will require more Duke police officers. Duke officers claim to police parties before they get out of hand, yet we in Trinity Heights never witness any evidence of this. Our experience is there are too few officers on duty in a given evening to make any meaningful difference."

"Students do not currently understand how to hold a successful party without disturbing neighbors. Parties must be kept indoors. Eighty to 100 guests is not a manageable population for most houses in our neighborhoods: fire risk and lack of egress are major problems for social events held in older homes. Duke should meet regularly with executive officers of each of its fraternities, and require them to educate their members about acceptable party behaviors."

"Student Affairs has told us that legal restraints prevent full communication to complainants of disciplinary actions against students whose behavior is found to violate city ordinances. But this lack of feedback perpetuates a sense that documented disruptive behavior off-campus is never held accountable and rarely punished. We do not ask Duke to compromise the privacy of its students ... [but] what neighbors need to see is clear evidence that students are being held accountable."

"Fraternity party houses do not belong in the neighborhoods of Durham. The ongoing development of Duke's Central Campus offers the ideal opportunity to make this change in student housing. Duke students involved in the task force often mentioned that many students prefer to socialize on campus, avoiding the hassle of transportation to off-campus events. Duke fraternity members we have spoken to say they would welcome a move back to campus. Currently, Duke fraternity members must pay a fraternity housing fee to national chapters, a fee that doesn't benefit them since Duke lacks dedicated fraternity housing on campus."
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1079690.cfm

Local repeal of collective-bargaining ban is a possibility
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Jan 25, 2009

DURHAM -- Whether or not the General Assembly repeals North Carolina's ban on public-sector collective bargaining, it's at least theoretically possible it could carve out an exemption to allow Durham to bargain with its bus system's employees, a local legislator says.

"Certainly I would support a Durham-only solution as well," said state Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, a proponent of a statewide repeal. "It would be a solution and could be presented as a local bill, if that's what the city requested."

The law as it now stands creates a Catch-22 that has effectively forced the city to operate the Durham Area Transit Authority through a private-sector intermediary, California-based MV Transportation Inc.

DATA's drivers, mechanics and clerks unionized while the system belonged to Duke Power. Because federal law protects their bargaining rights, and the state bars the city from entering talks, local officials had to turn to private-sector managers when they took over the system from Duke in the early 1990s.

But in recent years, that arrangement has caused officials a lot of heartburn.

The change of managers in 2004 that brought MV into the picture triggered a squabble with another company that lost out on the contract. MV also admitted in court documents that it underbid the contract and shortchanged maintenance once it was on-site, to help make up the difference.

The arbitrator of a wrongful-termination case filed against MV by former DATA General Manager Tom Hartley also raised questions last year about how the company landed the contract.

Despite an anti-lobbying clause that barred contact with elected officials, an MV co-founder met privately with City Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden before council members voted to hire the firm.

More recently, city and MV officials have been meeting twice a month at City Manager Tom Bonfield's orders to determine whether the company is in compliance with its contract.

Full or partial repeal of the collective-bargaining ban would allow the city to cut out the middleman. But Bonfield and other officials said Friday they're not sure that would necessarily help DATA.

"I don't know that I can come to that conclusion," Bonfield said. "I can say [the present system] creates additional layers of bureaucracy or management that can sometimes be complicated. But I don't think that in and of it itself necessarily ties back to whether we have a good bus system or not."

DATA Board of Trustees Chairman Chris Harder agreed.

"I don't think I have any evidence to say one way or another that if it was structured any different, it would be better," Harder said. "In any management situation you can find challenges and issues or positives about it."

Leaders of the N.C. League of Municipalities say they favor retaining a no-exceptions ban on public-sector collective bargaining. "Our membership does not believe collective bargaining is the solution to anything," said Ellis Hankins, the league's executive director.

Republicans in the General Assembly oppose a statewide repeal. But questions Friday about the possibility of an exception for Durham and DATA caught N.C. House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake, by surprise. He declined to offer a position on the matter.

"This has never come up, and I've never heard anything about it before," he said after listening to a short summary of the city's current situation.
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League asks for Bonfield's help in pushing for bargaining ban's retention
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Jan 25, 2009

DURHAM -- The main lobbying group for North Carolina's cities and towns has again asked City Manager Tom Bonfield to help push one of its legislative priorities, in this case the retention of the state's ban on public-sector collective bargaining.

N.C. League of Municipalities officials recently asked Bonfield and five other city managers with significant out-of-state experience to participate in a breakfast meeting with legislators early next month organized by a business lobby that also opposes a change in the state's labor laws.

Bonfield turned down the invitation, citing a scheduling conflict. But he asked to be kept informed and told league officials he's "happy to be a resource" for them as his schedule permits.

The league's executive director, Ellis Hankins, echoed local legislators in saying Friday that's there's likely to be a push in the General Assembly this year to overturn the existing bargaining ban.

Hankins said the vast majority of the league's member cities -- with Durham and Chapel Hill being prominent exceptions -- favor retaining it.

"Our membership understands that as public employers, they have a responsibility to attract and retain highly qualified public employees to provide essential services," he said.

"They know that requires adequate salaries and benefits, safe workplaces and adequate training, but they believe those matters are local matters that ought be left to the good judgment of local elective officials and not be subject to an adversarial collective bargaining process."

State Rep. Dan Blue, D-Wake, pushed a bill in the last session of the General Assembly that would have repealed the ban. It cleared a House judiciary committee, but stalled in the Appropriations Committee, said state Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham.

Hankins said he expects Blue and the State Employees Association of North Carolina soon to renew the repeal drive. He and his staff asked Bonfield and the other managers to talk to legislators so they can have "full and accurate information about this issue."

Bonfield came to Durham after spending most of his career in Florida. Public-sector collective bargaining is legal there, though the state doesn't allow workers to strike.

The league had previously asked Bonfield for help in lobbying against changes to the state's annexation law.

While he worked as city manager in Pensacola, Fla., Bonfield had to deal with three police unions and a firefighters union. In an earlier job in Temple Terrace, Fla., he dealt with two more police unions, a firefighters union and a group representing blue-collar employees.

Asked how those negotiations unfolded, he said, "Sometimes it went real well and other times it didn't."

He continued, "I don't necessarily believe unions make things any better or any worse, if you've got good labor-management relations. If you don't, it can certainly be a challenge. And certainly [unions] tend to become involved in politics much more in terms of candidates and those kinds of things. That's probably the biggest dynamic that changes."

Luebke and at least one other Durham legislator, Democratic state Sen. Floyd McKissick, favor repealing the bargaining ban.

McKissick -- who was quick to add he doesn't favor allowing workers to strike -- said it's not clear proponents have amassed enough support to mount a credible repeal drive in the 2009 session.

"The question becomes, is there a sufficient consensus emerging in favor of the concept," he said. "It serves no purpose to raise it if it's going to fail, as it would lessen the probability it would get passed in the future if it keeps coming up and fails."
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/way/

Commissioners risk public safety with a PC policy


Jan 25, 2009

Does Eve Carson ever cross the minds of the seven Orange County commissioners?

Did they think of her as they grilled Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass about his law enforcement agency's involvement in a federal program designed to protect American citizens and national interests?

One must wonder, because there are chilling similarities in how the N.C. Department of Correction's probation division totally mishandled the cases of two Durham thugs accused of cowardly gunning down the UNC student body president and the willful blind eye the commissioners desire that Pendergerass turn to potentially violent criminals here illegally.

The political correctness versus responsible police work showdown occurred Thursday night when Pendergrass gave the Board of Commissioners a rundown of the Secure Communities program, in which the sheriffs' offices in Orange, Duplin and New Hanover counties are participating.

The database program alerts U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when a criminal immigrant is jailed.

The way it works is this: A computer software program allows law enforcement agencies to submit a detainee's fingerprints into a federal database linked to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

In mere minutes, jailers know the person's true identity. That's a very handy tool. Those who commit mayhem in the streets don't always adhere to "honesty is the best policy" when giving officers their names.

Under existing procedures, it might take days to get an ID confirmed, and it's not been unknown for felons, fugitives and wanted probationers to be released from jail and disappear again before it is learned who they really are and why they are being sought by other police agencies.

The Secure Communities program sends automatic alerts to ICE when the database flags an individual as an undocumented foreigner.

Again, this is an effective, necessary way to deal with those in the country illegally. Those without documents or who have run afoul of the law, don't always use their real names.

Pendergrass said his staff wouldn't know the status of a detainee unless ICE made that known to them.

The Feds decide whether and how to handle the case of an immigration violator. The decision is based, in part, on a priority criteria system, with tiers ranging from violent criminals and drug dealers to those who committed minor offenses.

When Secure Communities launched last March, John S. Pistole, FBI deputy director, said: "Under this plan, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens."

U.S. Rep. David Price, D-Chapel Hill, was specifically applauded by Julie L. Myers, Homeland Security assistant secretary for ICE, for helping to push through $200 million for the program. Price is chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. Myers said the goal of Secure Communities is to protect the public.

Compare that to what state Attorney General Roy Cooper called for last May in the grim wake of Carson's death by multiple gunshots after she was abducted and forced to drain her bank funds by alleged killers Laurence Lovette Jr. and Demario Atwater.

The information-sharing program Cooper pushed would link police agencies to the Department of Correction database. It would allow officers on the street to know whether the person they stopped was wanted for probation violations, has a history of violence, and should be set free with a ticket or taken to jail.

Law enforcement officials say the present system is cumbersome and not always rapid enough to prevent the unwitting release of someone who should have been detained.

"We should be able to see immediately if a suspect is on probation when he's caught committing another crime," Cooper said then.

Sound familiar? That's the same storyline as Secure Communities.

Which makes one wonder about those Orange County commissioners and the terribly misguided resolution they have passed barring local law enforcement from working with federal immigration authorities to remove criminal immigration violators from our shores.

They are horrified by the notion of Orange County being viewed as a rude host by giving the boot to those who criminally abused the generosity and benefits extended to them by their host country. Would they also be against sealing the cracks in a state probation system that many view as being an unindicted codefendant in Carson's murder case?

One thing is sure. When probation violators are identified as recurring lawbreakers, they can be jailed and dealt with. But Orange County commissioners favor a double standard that gives greater protection to immigrants violating federal law than is granted to native Americans on probation, and that is wrong.

How will they explain that to the family of the next Eve Carson when a very preventable death occurs because of their political correctness?

Dan E. Way is editor of The Chapel Hill Herald.
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http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/265814

Blagojevich, Anthony Cases Raise Debate on Presumed Innocent

With high profile cases, like that of Casey Anthony who is being held for trial on a charge of killing her two-year-old daughter in Florida, issues concerning presumption of innocence become part of the debate.

The press continues to bring out salient details on the Anthony case. The very idea of a mother killing her own child is such a cultural taboo that it stimulates curiosity. Some folks hearing what facts have been brought out in the media have already made up their minds that the mother, Casey Anthony, is guilty of killing her daughter, Caylee. Still the legal definitions and concerns about the case need focus at all times during the public assessment of any case.

O.J. Simpson, for example, was tried in the press repeatedly both before, during and after his high profile trial. Again that’s because of the unique nature of the crime for which he was being held responsible and his particular place as a famous person. That’s when the issues of presumption of innocence come up, just like in the case of Anthony, when there are high profile cases that pique public curiosity.

The legal definition on presumption of innocence is spelled out by the legal community as this:

The indictment or formal charge against any person is not evidence of guilt. Indeed, the person is presumed by the law to be innocent. The law does not require a person to prove his innocence or produce any evidence at all. The Government has the burden of proving a person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and if it fails to do so the person is (so far as the law is concerned) not guilty.



The establishment of presumption of innocence was underlined out in the courts with case law. This is what has been noted in some of the more liberal websites devoted to law and politics.

“It is better than 5, 10, 20, or 100 guilty men go free than for one innocent man to be put to death. This principle is embodied in the presumption of innocence. In 1895, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision in the case Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432; 15 S. Ct. 394, traced the presumption of innocence, past England, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, and, at least according to Greenleaf, to Deuteronomy.”

They go on to relate the key elements of the Coffin case as substantiating the presumption of innocence with a major court decision.

This statement looks clear enough on the surface, but there are divergent views about what presumption of innocence is and isn’t. One writer underlines the fact that presumption of innocence is not stated explicitly in the Constitution but is part of English common law and the Fourth and part of the Fifteenth Amendments. There it is said that a person is presumed by law to be innocent until proven guilty. The writer, Blaine Kinsey, maintains that this does not mean that there should be no public discourse. He states,



The presumption of innocence is not a mandate that is imposed on all social discourse. It is not logical to assert, as a statement of fact, that a person is innocent until he/she has been proven to be guilty because it is possible for an innocent person to be convicted of a crime and it is possible for a guilty person to be acquitted of a crime.”



Both the Rod Blagojevich and Casey Anthony cases have been used to discuss the presumption of innocence, which Kinsey declares can be part of public discourse and not violate the standards of innocence. He goes on to write “

A person should not be considered guilty in the court of public opinion just because he/she has been accused of, or indicted for, a crime, but it is permissible for people to form opinions based on the information that is available to the public. “



Kinsey admits to being a member of the ACLU and retired as a Social Security claims examiner, so he isn’t an attorney. He does, however, express an opinion that is often used to dialogue about criminal cases and reflects the point of view of some of those who do so. Using his notions, it would appear reasonable to discuss cases but not presume guilt, if one is part of the process of decision-making, in either criminal or civil cases.

One source reflects the importance of folks not making up their minds until all the facts are in, even though discussion of the case may be reasonable, if we take Kinsey as a standard for discussion. This source reminds us to remember the three Duke lacrosse team players who were indicated for rape during the spring of 2006 by Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. Nancy Grace decided to make a firm statement about this on CNN proclaiming guilt of the young men before trial when she said, "I'm so glad they didn't miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape."
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http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/024972.html

January 24, 2009
Saturday at the State-Worshipping NY Times
Posted by Bill Anderson at January 24, 2009 09:56 AM

Saturday is supposed to be a day of rest, but the New York Times is hard on the job of promoting the total state. First, there is a front-page article on the plight of refugees from Zimbabwe, and it is well-written and interesting, and very, very sad. However, we should not forget that the Times was an early supporter of the man who is the source of this misery, Robert Mugabe. Furthermore, Mugabe's policies pretty much square with the state economic control that the Times endorses every day in both its news and editorial sections.

That the tragedy in Zimbabwe is an extreme example of what happens when the state confiscates private property, sets price controls, and prints money without end does not negate the fact that the Times for years has endorsed state seizure of private property, price controls, and fiat money. Indeed, one would think that the editors there would recognize the folly of those things endorsed by the Times, but we are speaking of the Newspaper of Walter Duranty, Jayson Blair, Judith Miller, and Duff Wilson (of Duke lacrosse fame).

However, as they say on the late-night commercials, "Wait! There's more!"

The top editorial excoriates Gov. David Paterson for choosing Kirsten Gillibrand as Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate replacement. Why? In the Times' own words:

What is the most disappointing about Ms. Gillibrand’s record is her extreme opposition to reasonable gun control laws. Her opposition to new efforts to trace illegal guns and support for rolling back gun control laws in the District of Columbia go well beyond her declared support for hunters’ rights. She earned a top rating and vigorous campaign support from the National Rifle Association. Her jarring views on guns could cost her a bitter Democratic primary fight next year for re-election if gun-control advocates like Representative Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island challenge her on this issue.

I'm not sure what "unreasonable" gun control might be. However, the editors do hope that her views will "evolve" to fit those of the anti-private gun Senator Charles Schumer:

On Friday, Ms. Gillibrand seemed ready to hear arguments against her views on guns. She vowed to help push Ms. McCarthy’s latest bill to speed background checks on those who buy guns at gun shows. She should also agree to Senator Charles Schumer’s offer to escort her on a listening tour of New York’s urban neighborhoods where guns are not used for hunting the Thanksgiving turkey. Senator Schumer said he was confident that once she saw the problem, her views on this grave issue would “evolve.”

Read that, "Unless you are lockstep with Schumer, we will kneecap you in the upcoming election." No doubt, she will be horrified. Who knows? Maybe they can have a REAL DRIVE-BY SHOOTING DURING HER VISIT!

And what is a Saturday at the Times without a column from the man with the angry visage, Bob Herbert? Today, we read more about the Greatness of Our Maximum Leader Obama:

...I’ve seen charismatic politicians and pretty families come and go like sunrises and sunsets over the years. There was something more that was making people go ga-ga over Obama. Something deeper.

We’ve been watching that something this week, and it’s called leadership. Mr. Obama has been feeding the almost desperate hunger in this country for mature leadership, for someone who is not reckless and clownish, shortsighted and self-absorbed.

However you feel about his policies, and there are people grumbling on the right and on the left, Mr. Obama has signaled loudly and clearly that the era of irresponsible behavior in public office is over.

No more crazy wars. No more torture, and no more throwing people in prison without even the semblance of due process. No more napping while critical problems like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, global warming, and economic inequality in the United States grow steadily worse.

“We remain a young nation,” Mr. Obama said in his Inaugural Address, “but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.”

On Wednesday, his first full day in office, the president took steps to make the federal government more transparent, signaling immediately that the country would move away from the toxic levels of secrecy that marked the Bush years.

“Transparency and rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,” he said. It was a commitment to responsible behavior, and a challenge to the public to hold the Obama administration accountable. It reminded me of the wonderful line written into a federal appeals court ruling in 2002 by Judge Damon Keith:

“Democracies die behind closed doors.”

This has been the Obama way, to set a responsible example and then to call on others to follow his mature lead. In Iowa, after his victory in the Democratic caucuses a year ago, he promised to be “a president who will be honest about the choices and challenges we face, who will listen to you and learn from you, even when we disagree, who won’t just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know.”

In a cynical age, the inclination is to dismiss this stuff as so much political rhetoric. But Mr. Obama carries himself in a way that suggests he means what he says, which gives him great credibility when he urges Americans to work hard and make sacrifices, not just for themselves and their families but for the common good — and when he tells black audiences that young men need to hitch up their trousers and behave themselves, and that families need to turn off the TV so the kids can do their homework.

Or when he says of the many serious challenges facing the nation, as he did in his Inaugural Address: “They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.”

The bond is growing between the nation and its new young leader.

Indeed, that "bond" already was there with Obama and the press. I'm so glad that the Times is on the job, giving us advice on how we should live and think. I don't know how I could live without it.
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http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/01/24/article/stretched_thin_hundreds_of_criminals_disappear_in_a_system_struggling_to_

Stretched thin: Hundreds of criminals disappear in a system struggling to keep up
Sunday, January 25
( updated 3:00 am)
By Ryan Seals
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO - Overwhelmingly big case loads and low pay are overburdening Guilford County's probation system, leaving many offenders without direction or supervision and putting the public at risk.

Of the county's 6,185 probationers, 1,219 of them could not be found as of Wednesday, probation officials said.

Just do the math: Each of the 90 probation officers assigned to Guilford County must keep tabs on nearly 70 probationers.

Good probation officers are leaving, tired of juggling heavy case loads and long hours for little pay. Offenders keep committing crimes in a system meant to help them become productive citizens.

And it costs taxpayers when criminals return to an expensive and crowded prison system. And when innocent people are put in danger.

The 2008 slayings of UNC-Chapel Hill student body President Eve Carson and Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato brought problems with the state's probation system to the forefront.

The suspects in those crimes were on probation but had received little or no attention from their probation officers, according to media reports.

State officials maintain that such lax oversight isn't widespread, and local officials maintain that although their office has its problems, it is run well.

Underfunded, overworked

Max Gerald and his assistants in the 18th Judicial District office of the state's Division of Community Correction say many of the problems arise because the probation system is underfunded and officers are overworked.

"It's a cause-and-effect thing here because nobody wants to raise taxes," said Gerald, who oversees probation in Guilford County. "To get where we need to get, (money is) one of the major issues."

Gov. Bev Perdue announced plans earlier this month to deal with a nearly $2 billion budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year. Of the proposed cuts, $93 million likely will be cut from crime and punishment programs.

"The ultimate question will be with the worsening economy and the deficit we find ourselves in: How are we going to find the resources to tackle the (probation) problem?" said newly elected state Sen. Don Vaughan. "We need to find a way to stretch our resources to make probation effective."

Vaughan, a local attorney with 25 years of experience, plans to make the probation system one of his priorities in the General Assembly. The state also needs to look at how probation cases are handled in the courts, he said.

"On Monday morning, you can wait an hour to an hour and a half just to get inside the courtroom door because of the volume of (probation) cases in Guilford County," Vaughan said.

"It's overwhelming right now, and I think the Eve Carson case in Chapel Hill was the awakening of the state legislature that the system needs attention.''

A revolving door

Pay is another issue. Probation officers are paid the same statewide. But in urban areas with higher case loads, more court hearings and issues such as gangs, many officers are leaving the job, probation officials said.

"We have officers come in, stay two or three years and get some work experience, and move on to bigger and better things," Gerald said. "It's a revolving door. ... To keep good people, you are going to have to pay them."

On average, a state probation officer with a few years of experience makes about $37,000 a year. A federal probation officer can make about $50,000.

Ideally, Gerald said, he needs 12 to 15 more probation officers in Guilford County and a case load of about 45 to 50 cases each. He would like to see pay start at $40,000 for community-level officers and in the $50,000 range for intermediate officers.

"(Vacancies) put extra burden on the officers because someone has to supervise those cases," said Garry McCluskey, an assistant judicial district manager. "That sort of becomes a piling-on ... that creates undue hardship on the officers we do have."

Keeping track of nearly 70 cases requires time management and priorities, Gerald said.

Each day, probation officers in Guilford County put on a variety of hats when they supervise criminals. They are counselors, supervisors, authority figures, mentors, law enforcement officers and, ultimately, the last chance criminals in Guilford County have before landing in jail or state prison.

With limited time and so many cases to juggle, some offenders don't get the help they need through probation, Gerald said.

"You've got cases with various problems - unemployment, lack of education, housing, transportation and other things - that we try to address," Gerald said.

"To provide the type of quality supervision for each individual case, you have to prioritize your time. If you don't address those needs, that offender will stay in the same environment with the same friends doing the same thing."

For some offenders, probation can be a one-stop shop for the guidance they have never gotten, said Tracy Parr, an assistant judicial district manager.

"It's a reality. We are a referral source. We are a counseling source. We wear a lot of different hats," she said. "We work to teach them there are consequences for the choices they make, and we can help them if they allow us to help them make good sound decisions."

Parr recently received a call from a man she supervised in High Point in the early 1990s when he was on probation for financial crimes.

"He called to say he had a full-time job, was married and had two kids," Parr said. "He said he didn't like me then, but thanked me. Years later, many of these offenders realize we had their best interest at heart."

Missing in action

Another major issue, Parr and others say, is an overall disrespect for the judicial system by offenders who purposely avoid their probation officers.

In December, the News & Observer of Raleigh reported that state probation officials couldn't account for 14,000 of the more than 114,000 probationers they were assigned to supervise.

In Guilford County, nearly a fifth of probationers could not be found as of Wednesday, officials said.

That figure can sound alarming, but Gerald said it's not a case of his office losing the probationers. The majority are people skipping out on probation, and not all of them are violent offenders.

"If that offender changes his address without prior approval by his probation officer, we don't know where he's at and he doesn't make himself available for supervision," Gerald said.

"We cannot supervise an offender if we can't find him."

When a person is assigned to probation, an officer collects addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, Social Security numbers and other identifying information.

If the person cannot be found, the officer checks with employers, hospitals and the jail, McCluskey said. If the person still isn't found, the officer files paperwork in Raleigh identifying the person as an absconder.

Each absconder is entered into the National Crime Information Center used by all law enforcement agencies.

Absconders who fall through the cracks often find their way back to prison for a variety of crimes, ranging from misdemeanor trespassing to murder.

"Nine times out of 10 that's how they get captured - when they commit another offense," Gerald said. "A lot of the times, they get picked up in traffic stops."

The News & Observer series cited 580 offenders who killed someone while on probation since 2000.

Christopher Nathaniel Little of High Point is a suspect in one of those cases. The 19-year-old man was put on probation in October 2007 on a charge of driving with a revoked license, and he absconded a month later, according to court records.

High Point police say Little and two other men robbed and killed Jermaine Quentine Collins in a home invasion on Dec. 18, 2007.

Little was arrested in Augusta, Ga., in January 2008 and now faces murder, kidnapping, burglary and robbery charges. The case has not gone to court.

Another thing making probation officers' jobs difficult is the growing number of juveniles who commit crimes, local officials say.

"Although juvenile and adult probation are working toward a similar goal, we do not have (access) to juvenile records," Parr said. "We may get a 16-year-old offender that has been in the system for years and years, but we aren't given that information.''

An offender's criminal background is part of what determines the level of supervision a probationer receives, but a juvenile with a violent history could get minimal supervision because his record is closed at 16.

"You may have a gang member ... involved in some serious, violent crimes, but because he or she doesn't have an adult history, (he or she) might be assigned to a community-level officer," Gerald said.

Cheaper alternative to jail

The state's probation system is set up to serve two main purposes: to avoid adding people to crowded jails and prisons and to guide offenders back onto the right track, Gerald said.

And probation is more cost-efficient than prison. For each offender housed in a state prison in the 2007-08 fiscal year, taxpayers paid an average of $74.77 a day, according to the N.C. Department of Correction.

The cost of probation, depending on the level of supervision, can range from 83 cents per day for a community service work program to $28.84 a day for a sex offender who requires GPS monitoring.

"People who don't really need to go to prison and make a mistake still can be productive members of society. If they have a substance abuse problem, we can treat that. We can keep them in the community and paying taxes," Gerald said.

"I'm a firm believer that we can't send everyone to prison. The bottom line is that we can't afford it. We are going to (run) ourselves to the poor house."

Chief District Court Judge Joseph E. Turner said he prefers putting offenders on probation to sending them to prison because there's a better chance the offender can become a productive citizen.

"We are never going to build our way out of there being crime," Turner said. "We don't want to put that many people in jail, and we can't afford to."

Turner agreed that more probation officers would be beneficial for the state, reducing case loads and allowing officers to spend more time rehabilitating offenders.

"They would be able to do more mentoring, guiding, counseling, in addition to giving them a strong talking to so they don't repeat as offenders," Turner said. In order to save money on state prisons, you are going to have to put money into those things that keep people out of prison."



Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4395715/
Shot men found in wrecked car on Beltline
Posted: Today at 6:54 a.m.
Updated: 46 minutes ago

Raleigh, N.C. — Paramedics found two men with gunshot wounds inside a wrecked car on Interstate 440 early Sunday, Raleigh police said.

A 911 caller reported seeing a single, wrecked car on the shoulder of the Outer Beltline, between Wake Forest Road and Capital Boulevard, around 3:30 a.m. Police said that first responders found Julian Annan Quao, 24, of Raleigh and William Deontia Hall, 25, of Wake Forest, inside the car.

Both men were shot in the back, police said. They were taken to WakeMed to be treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Quao was listed in good condition, and Hall has been released from WakeMed, hospital officials said.

Police said the shooting occurred sometime after Quao and Hall left the 40/30 Room nightclub on Capital Boulevard. Quao's injuries then caused him to crash on the Outer Beltline.

Investigators were unsure of the exact location of the shooting. They did not have a suspect or motive Sunday evening.
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