Mayor on WFAE's 'Charlotte Talks'

Mayor Daune was on WFAE's 'Charlotte Talks' radio show with Director of Planning Greg Mahar yesterday.

Unlike her appearance on WIXE last week, this one is available online for those that missed it.

A streaming version is available here and a downloadable MP3 version (for posterity's sake of course) can be grabbed here.

Enjoy.

ps. If anyone found an MP3 copy of the mayor and Katie Ross on WIXE, I'd love to hear it.

A little tidbit on historic district

There hasn't been a whole lot of linkable material on the public hearing for the proposed historic district. However, the Union County Weekly ran a letter to the editor from Shell Holston, a historic property owner in last Friday's issue.

Read the whole thing for his description of the hearing, which lasted 5 hours. This jives with my description in my follow-up hearing post.

I confirmed with Katie Ross that 10 of the 12 of those who spoke in favor of the historic district live within the larger proposed historic district. I followed up with a question as to how many of these ten would be subject to the historic district rules (ie. they own a historic property). When I hear back, I will update accordingly.

UPDATE 4/07: Quick as a fiddle, Katie got back to me. Eight of the twelve people who spoke in favor will be subject to the rules imposed by the overlay.

Lost weekend

Not much going on this humble blog last weekend. The kids and I took a camping trip to Reed's Gold Mine. It was fun, but a tad bit cold in the mornings. Who knew that an old poorly insulated sleeping bag would not keep me warm enough to sleep as temperatures neared freezing? I've never been so thankful for the sun to rise.

If you're looking for a fun day trip, I recommend it especially if you've never been. A neat place and we walked out with three small pieces (read flakes) of gold after thorough panning. Don't bother breaking into my place to steal them though.

While gold prices are high, our finds were so small that I'm confident you'll never find them.

And with playing catch-up on Monday and the Tuesday storm taking out power at my place of business, things have been nearly as hectic this week as well.

To make up for my absence, I'll share a Maxwell's Tavern rumor with you: the word on the street (at least according to an unnamed waitress) is that they will soon be phasing out the Wisconsin cheddar soup as it gets warmer. Since it's only available on certain days (and rarely do these days coincide with the days I dine there), this is something of a bummer.

New Gazette

A little late, but a late hyperlink is better than no hyperlink. That's what my mother always said.

Charges finally dropped in Bonnie & Clyde case

According to Tara Servatius on Friday's show, charges have been dropped against Caleb Allen. Of course, I could find nary a mention of this in any Charlotte media source.

However, I did get confirmation today from the family of Caleb Allen that the charges have in fact been dropped.

Here's what the document says about dropping the charges against Caleb:

The prosecution is dismissing the above case for the following reason(s):

The eyewitness' identification of Defendant as the man she saw leaving her driveway seconds after the break-in was based on a single, fleeting encounter. He is a stranger to her. Officers now believe she may have been mistaken. She also misidentified Defendant's suspected accomplice, a woman whom police now believe was not involved. That woman has credible witnesses who will vouch for her and say she was at work out-of-county when the break-in occurred.

Similarly. the identification of this Defendant by an out-of-county police officer from a grainy store surveillance video is now cast in doubt. The male subject seen in that video wears a ball cap that obscures part of his face and he is seen only briefly from 8 distance. The same officer also misidentified Defendant's suspected accomplice as a woman whom police now know was actually in jail on the day of the break-in. She couldn't possibly have been involved.

Other evidence suggests the break-in may have been comitted by other suspects who drive a vehicle similar to the one Defendant drives. The victim's property stolen in this break-in was later located in those other suspects' bedroom.

At this time police have too little evidence to prove that Defendant and the other suspects are part of a conspiracy. Without that proof, jurors would be forced to choose which of the known suspects actually committed the break-in. They are certain to have reasonable doubt and would find this Defendant not guilty.

It's crystal clear after reading this that the only circumstantial evidence they had against Caleb Allen is the fact:

1. he owned a red Jeep Cherokee
2. he was misidentified by an eyewitness
3. he was misidentified in the grainy gas station video by an out-of-county police officer

After all of this, it only took how many weeks after his mother clued them into the real suspects to drop the charges? At this point, you can safely say the Charlotte police botched this one. But wait there's more...

Surprisingly (or not at this point), they are also dropping the charges against Justin Aldrich. Reasons range from the initial charges against Allen to not obtaining a search warrant when they searched the house Aldrich and Hoard were renting. Here's the explanation on Justin Aldrich in its entirety:

The prosecution is dismissing the above case for the following reason(s):

This Defendant was linked to these offenses primarily by his possession of property stolen from several break-ins; however, his proven possession of that property came days or weeks after the break-ins, and the evidence is somewhat inconclusive.

Weeks after a victim's iPad was stolen in a break-in, Defendant sold it to a pawn shop. Standing alone, his mere possession of the stolen is insufficient to prove he either stole it or knew it was stolen.

Other items stolen in several break-ins were found in a rented bedroom that he and a codefendant shared; however, neither of them was present when police first searched that room. Neither of them gave permission to search the room and the officers had no search warrant. Defendant's landlord kicked in their locked bedroom door and invited officers to enter and search the room. He had no authority to do that. Officers later decided to withdraw and seek a search warrant, but the application they submitted to the Magistrate includes a description of the things they'd already seen in Defendants' bedroom, which they describe as things "similar to items listed in breaking and entering reports ..." Arguably this taints the application and undermines the validity of the search warrant, making it more likely than not that a court would suppress all evidence flowing from the search of the bedroom.

In addition to this and several other complications, there is the problem of codefendant Carl Allen. who was identified by a witness who told police she saw him leaving her home seconds after it was broken into. Allen drives a vehicle like the one linked to this Defendant, and another witness identified him from a store surveillance video, strengthening police suspicion that Allen was involved in this break-in. Although the identification of Allen is now in doubt, his suspected involvement in the case will linger to create reasonable doubt as to this Defendant. Police cannot currently prove the existence of a conspiracy among all three defendants, but nor can they exclude that possibility. Without such a proven link, jurors would be forced to decide which of the known suspects actually committed the break-ins. They are certain to have reasonable doubt and would find this Defendant not guilty.

And similar, if not verbatim reasoning, is used to justify dropping the charges against Anna Hoard. In its entirety:

The prosecution is dismissing the above case for the following reason(s):

This Defendant was linked to these offenses primarily by her possession of property stolon from several break-ins; however, her proven possession of that property came days or weeks after the break-ins, and the evidence is somewhat inconclusive.

Weeks after a victim's iPad was stolen in a break-in, Defendant's boyfriend sold it to a pawn shop. Standing alone, his mere possession of the stolen jPad is insufficient to prove this Defendant personally possessed it, stole it or even knew it was stolen.

Other items stolen in several break-ins were found in a rented bedroom that she and her boyfriend shared; however, neither of them was present when police first searched that room. Neither of them gave permission to search the room and the officers had no search warrant. Defendant's landlord kicked in their locked bedroom door and invited officers to cuter and search the room. He had no authority to do that. Officers later decided to withdraw and seek a search warrant, but the application they submitted to the Magistrate includes a description of the things they'd already seen in Defendants' bedroom, which they describe as things "similar to items listed in breaking and entering reports ...." Arguably this taints the application and undermines the validity of the search warrant, making it more likely than not that a court would suppress all evidence flowing from the search of the
bedroom.

In addition to this and several other complications, there is the problem of codefendant Carl Allen, who was identified by a witness who told police she saw him leaving her home seconds after it was broken into. Allen drives a vehicle like the one linked to this Defendant, and another witness identified him from a store surveillance video, strengthening police suspicion that Allen was involved in this break-in. Although the identification of Allen is now in doubt, his suspected involvement in the case will linger to create reasonable doubt as to this Defendant. Police cannot currently prove the existence of a conspiracy among all three defendants, but nor can they exclude that possibility. Without such a proven link, jurors would be forced to decide which of the known suspects actually committed the break-ins. They are certain to have reasonable doubt and would find this Defendant not guilty.

All in all, the Charlotte police did a less than stellar job on this case using their rush to judgment as some of the reason the Bonnie & Clyde break-ins will likely never be properly charged. But Justin Aldrich and Anna Hoard could still face charges in the Concord break-in that ultimately got them arrested.

One of many lingering questions: will the Charlotte media that touted the arrest of 'Clyde' and splashed Caleb Allen's face all over the news bother to offer any corrections/retractions? I was a little surprised when they neglected to even cover the Herald Weekly's stories. At this point, I would not be surprised if they failed to mention another word about the case.

Besides Tara, of course. There is plenty to discuss on this case today if she chooses to. And I suspect the Herald Weekly (or that family of newspapers) will offer some fitting conclusion when it next goes to press.

UPDATE: Here's the original document in Scribd for those interested:
20110401151758342

We're a go for the Town & Country 5K

Well, my wife is. As for me, I have a tee ball game to assist in coaching and as we all know, an assistant coach's job is never done.

Because of the game, I'm a little bummed out I won't be able to get any pictures of this year's winner (or my wife) as they go zooming by. Oh well.

Marathon madness

Our friend Tim has a blog detailing his journey as he runs twelve marathons in the Carolinas in twelve months. This blew my mind as I visualized the pounding my ankles and knees would take from running this much and it isn't pretty.

He's two marathons down at this point, leaving ten more to go, so you can follow the muscle-cramping shin-splitting journey in all its glory here. (At least that's how I envision it. Tim might dispute that description.)

And if you thought twelve marathons was a lot, here's a snippet of his encounter running into other marathon junkies:

So I started to talk to a gentleman named Joe. As I was telling him about my quest for 12 in 12 he HUMBLED me, in a nice way, by what his achievements in the last 365 days have been….33 marathons in 365 days!!! As he talked, and I didn’t another young man walked up that knew Joe and introduced himself as Daniel. I was then Humbled once again with his achievements in the last 365 days of 55 marathons!!! I also met a 55 year old on his 73rd lifetime race, and ran with a 67 year old on his 173rd life time marathon!!! Ya’ll think I’m crazy?!!

Marathons runners are truly one of a kind.

Tim recently started a personal training business called Get Fit Carolinas. He will apparently have a booth set up at this Saturday's WAA opening day festivities at the fields of Kensington Elementary, perhaps dishing out marathoning gossip, perhaps not. I will miss it unfortunately, but if I find gold in them thar hills this weekend, it'll all be worth it.