Showing posts tagged “crime”
Samiha Khanna ·
28 Jan 2010, 7:38 PM ·
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A former Durham police officer and former UNC football standout has been indicted on federal drug charges, the Durham Police Department announced late Thursday.
Sherrod Peace, 35, is accused of dealing five grams of crack cocaine, and possessing a gun at the time of drug trafficking, according to the Durham police statement. According to the federal indictment, posted online by the ABC11 news channel, the gun was a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson. This is the same make and model carried by Durham police, according to an earlier public records (see graphic) request by the Indy.
Peace worked in the city’s District One, composed largely of eastern Durham neighborhoods, police spokeswoman Kammie Michael wrote in an e-mail. He was with the force from 2003 to Dec. 31, 2009. City personnel records show Peace made about $50,000 a year with the department after a raise in August.
According to the statement, Durham Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. received a complaint in early October 2009 that Peace was involved in illegal activities and started a criminal investigation with the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Durham police also conducted an internal investigation.
It is unclear from the statement how Peace was charged or whether he is accused of dealing drugs while on duty.
“We take any allegation of misconduct by our employees very seriously and thoroughly investigate all complaints,” Lopez said in the prepared statement. “Law enforcement officers take an oath to serve and protect the community and we must be held to a high standard.”
Peace was a football star at Northern High School in Durham and while he played at UNC, his cousin Jason Peace was also on the team. Peace also has a fraternal twin brother, Sherron Peace, who played football at Howard University, according to a UNC feature story from 1999.
Durham, Durham County, national, news corruption, crime, DEA, drugs, Durham police department, Jose Lopez, Sherrod Peace
Samiha Khanna ·
4 Jan 2010, 6:29 PM ·
2 Comments
Durham’s newest ordinance, which bans owners in the city and county from tethering their dogs for prolonged periods, is just three days old. But already, it has spurred roughly 50 reports from citizens to Durham County Animal Control, Director Cindy Bailey said Monday.
Today was the first day of 2010 that Animal Control has been open, Bailey said, so officers were out in force investigating the complaints. Officers will visit any offender in 90 days to see if they have made any progress in finding alternatives to tethers and chains to contain their pets. Right now, officers are issuing warnings with a drop-dead date of June 30. Anyone in violation of the ordinance on July 1 or later could receive a citation and face fines of up to $150. Continue reading »
Durham, Durham County, news animal rights, anti-tethering law, Cindy Bailey, crime, Durham Animal Control, Durham County, pets, unchained dogs
David Fellerath ·
16 Dec 2008, 11:55 AM ·
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In an eyebrow-raising column this morning in The N&O, Barry Saunders ventures the suggestion that the startlingly vicious mugging of Martin Eakes, co-founder and CEO of Self-Help Credit Union, was not a garden-variety crime but a targeted attack.
Saunders notes that Eakes has certainly made adversaries over the years, and perhaps one of them is thuggish enough to order the kind of attack we normally associate with The Sopranos.
If you closed one eye and squinted real hard out of the other one — view the assault on Self-Help Credit Union co-founder Martin Eakes in the elevator of a downtown Durham parking garage Nov. 24 as a random attack. Perhaps Eakes was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And the fact that the four thugs who used his head as a punching bag coordinated their positioning — there was one dude on each stairwell blocking any potential escape route and two on the elevator — why, that’s what all street robbers do, right?
If you believe that, I’ve got a low-interest, subprime loan for you. Sign here.
Neither Eakes nor Durham police are saying he was targeted because of his work on behalf of poor people and against those lending organizations that prey on the poor.
But I am.
Saunders asked Eakes who might his enemies be, and Eakes replied:
“When we first started,” Eakes said, “the KKK used to threaten us. Then it was the drug dealers” who didn’t want his organization fixing up rundown neighborhoods. After that, he got on the bad side of predatory lenders with usurious rates who don’t like Eakes providing lending options for poor people.
“When Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are your heroes,” Eakes said, “chances are you have enemies.”
Durham, business, media, news crime, drug dealers, KKK, Martin Eakes, mugging, predatory lenders, Self-Help Credit Union
Vernal Coleman ·
8 Sep 2008, 12:29 PM ·
1 Comment
A recently released federal study reveals that problems in the Wake and Durham county probation offices are worse than previously thought, reports the News and Observer.
Ordered weeks after the offices were revealed to have mishandled the cases of two men suspected in the separate murders of Abhijit Mahato and Eve Carson, two local university students, a National Institute of Corrections report tells of a Durham County probation office in disarray, with deficiencies in a whopping 80 percent of its cases.
Wake County didn’t fare much better. Auditors found deficiencies in 43 percent of the 944 cases sampled for the study.
This summer , the legislature earmarked an additional $2.5 million stimulus for the system, which officials say is starved for funding.
If nothing else, that will cover the $110, 823 in office equipment the report says is missing from the Wake probation office.
Durham County, Wake County crime, criminal justice, Duke University, Probation, UNC-Chapel Hill
