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Updated: Jan. 17, 2023 at 8:53 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
The trial began Tuesday in the case of a former Myers Park High School student who reported being led into the woods adjacent to campus and sexually assaulted by a male classmate.
Updated: Jan. 16, 2023 at 10:37 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
The actions of Myers Park High School administrators and officers at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in the wake of a student’s reported rape will go on trial Tuesday. The case involves a student who reported being forced into the woods adjacent to the school’s campus and sexually assaulted by a male classmate. The incident was reported in early November 2015.
Updated: Jan. 9, 2023 at 2:20 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
A Pineville nursing home saw its rating drop dramatically following a WBTV investigation. In October, WBTV investigated Pineville Rehabilitation and Living Center, which still had a five-star rating from federal regulators. After our story, that rating dropped to one-star.
Updated: Dec. 22, 2022 at 12:54 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
A top executive for billionaire insurance magnate Greg Lindberg has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Court documents unsealed on Thursday detailed the case against the executive, Christopher Herwig.
Updated: Dec. 21, 2022 at 7:17 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
Two children were illegally taken from their school in the Rock Hill school district, six months apart. Both were recovered when their father was stopped by N.C. State Highway Patrol on Monday. Now their mom is speaking only with WBTV to question why the system that was supposed to safeguard her children failed not once but twice.
Updated: Nov. 23, 2022 at 4:47 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
The families of the two men killed in the Sky3 helicopter crash shared statements Wednesday reflecting on their loved ones’ lives.
Updated: Nov. 9, 2022 at 7:06 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner and Courtney Cole
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools interim superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh will leave his post at the end of the year. Hattabaugh was hired in April and had a contract to serve through the end of the 2022-2023 school year.
Updated: Nov. 7, 2022 at 12:34 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
Hundreds of criminal cases have been dismissed in Mecklenburg County because of a clerical error that has impacted cases for months. Two top court leaders, Chief District Judge Elizabeth Trosch and District Attorney Spencer Merriweather, refused to answer questions for this story.
Updated: Nov. 3, 2022 at 1:42 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Democrat Jeff Jackson has pulled a campaign ad that focused on a house owned by his opponent, Pat Harrigan. The move comes weeks after police began investigating a bullet that was shot into a house owned by Harrigan’s parents.
Updated: Nov. 1, 2022 at 3:01 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
A Charlotte-area man who immigrated to the United States legally nearly 25 years ago is now in limbo after Charlotte immigration lawyer George N. Miller failed to take action in his immigration case.
Updated: Oct. 21, 2022 at 6:35 PM EDT
|By WBTV Web Staff and Nick Ochsner
The lapse occurred after records were stored in a cloud-based storage container without sufficient security protections.
Updated: Oct. 19, 2022 at 11:02 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Two women contacted WBTV separately to spotlight the harassment and retaliation they reported while working in the North Carolina National Guard.
Updated: Oct. 13, 2022 at 5:51 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Pineville Rehabilitation and Living Center has a five-star rating from the federal agency that oversees nursing home quality. Despite that, state inspectors found 126 pages of violations during an inspection in July 2022 after complaints stemming from a woman who didn't receive proper medical treatment and ended up in the hospital.
Updated: Oct. 6, 2022 at 1:42 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The CW Williams Health Center in Charlotte is under investigation by the FBI and U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Service Office of Inspector General after a pair of whistleblowers brought forth concerns they saw while working there. The pair detailed those concerns to WBTV and provided hundreds of pages of internal records.
Updated: Sep. 8, 2022 at 11:26 AM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
An analysis by the N.C. Watchdog Reporting Network of hundreds of fuel sample records from school buses with MaxxForce engines across the state shows that oil sample tests found elevated levels of fuel in the oil more than one third of the time.
Updated: Sep. 7, 2022 at 11:47 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner and Lucille Sherman
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman’s office has yet to pursue criminal charges in several complaints that elections investigators deemed worthy of criminal prosecution, including cases of voter fraud and campaign finance violations by an influential Raleigh CEO, newly obtained records show.
Updated: Aug. 23, 2022 at 5:47 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stopped a state criminal investigation into North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein on Tuesday. The ruling comes one day after a Wake County grand jury signed off on the first of a two-part process to seek charges against Stein.
Updated: Aug. 22, 2022 at 5:40 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein is facing a possible indictment after a grand jury approved prosecutors moving forward with a criminal investigation.
Updated: Aug. 12, 2022 at 3:01 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner and WBTV Web Staff
WBTV has been investigating excessive force allegations related to the arrest.
Updated: Aug. 11, 2022 at 7:49 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The Wake County District Attorney’s office pursued a criminal investigation into North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein despite a recommendation that the case be closed, according to a memo obtained by WBTV.
Updated: Aug. 11, 2022 at 4:33 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating an arrest in which a sergeant with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office reportedly choked a man whose hands were cuffed behind his back. An SBI spokeswoman confirmed the investigation to WBTV on Thursday, days after our investigation first exposed the incident and its fallout.
Updated: Aug. 9, 2022 at 2:19 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Judge Kimberly Best got into a heated argument with a delivery driver in the parking garage at the Mecklenburg County courthouse last month, according to multiple law enforcement narratives of the incident completed by courthouse security guards and deputies with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.
Updated: Aug. 8, 2022 at 4:05 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
A Lincoln County sheriff's deputy was fired after he reported a supervisor choking a suspect whose hands were cuffed behind his back. Agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation have been unable to investigate the whistleblower's report because the local district attorney will not authorize them to do so.
Updated: Jul. 27, 2022 at 6:38 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner and Lucille Sherman
The law at the center of a bizarre legal battle between Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman’s office and North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein was deemed virtually unenforceable several years ago by the state board of elections. Despite that, Freeman's office was minutes away from taking the case to a grand jury.
Updated: Jul. 11, 2022 at 5:13 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The City of Charlotte and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have each faced sanctions in federal court in recent months over their failure to produce documents and other evidence in ongoing civil lawsuits. In one instance, a judge ruled that the city destroyed evidence.
Updated: Jun. 20, 2022 at 5:45 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
A Charlotte-area man called WBTV for help after his license was suspended by the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles in a case of mistaken identity.
Updated: Jun. 8, 2022 at 4:48 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
A former Myers Park High School student has filed a lawsuit against Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools claiming the district allowed a culture of sexual harassment and failed to properly respond to her report of being raped by a fellow student on campus in 2016.
Updated: May. 16, 2022 at 2:33 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
A WBTV investigation has uncovered illegal forms being used in Cabarrus County to remove children from their parents' custody and place them in the homes of other adults. A retired judge-turned-state lawmaker calls the forms astonishing. In the span of one interview, the director of Cabarrus County's department of human services confirmed the forms were used before denying they were ever used.
Updated: May. 9, 2022 at 9:39 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Charlotte’s two largest hospitals say they are seeing a spike in the number of assaults reported on staff.
Updated: May. 9, 2022 at 4:49 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner and WBTV Web Staff
The letter written by Winston’s attorney Glenn Brock, provided new details of the back-and-forth between the school board regarding former superintendent Earnest Winston prior to his termination last month.
Updated: May. 5, 2022 at 2:53 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Two families called WBTV to talk about their experiences with DSS after having children taken from their home without a court order. It's a practice the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has said is limited. But stories and records from these two families suggest otherwise.
Sources: Top CMS staffer interfered in investigation into Hawthorne Academy HS sexual assault claims
Updated: Apr. 29, 2022 at 11:50 AM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
LaTarzja Henry, a top staffer at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, interfered in the investigation into the handling of reported sexual assaults at Hawthorne Academy High School, sources familiar with the matter tell WBTV.
Updated: Apr. 25, 2022 at 1:21 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The family of McCrae Dowless released a new statement Monday promising that more information will come out about allegations related to election fraud that has swirled for years, stemming from the 2018 election for the 9th Congressional District. Dowless died of cancer on Sunday.
Updated: Apr. 24, 2022 at 5:27 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner and WBTV Web Staff
The political operative at the center of the 9th Congressional District scandal in 2018, McCrae Dowless, has died after a battle with cancer, sources told WBTV.
Updated: Apr. 19, 2022 at 6:52 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education voted Tuesday to release internal personnel documents of Earnest Winston that the board said prompted its decision to fire him.
Updated: Apr. 19, 2022 at 12:36 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Board members voted publicly 7-2 to terminate Winston’s contract.
Updated: Apr. 18, 2022 at 11:18 AM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Tuesday where it is expected to vote to fire Superintendent Earnest Winston. That vote comes after months of back-and-forth regarding Winston's future at the district, including an offer by board members to pay Winston to leave.
Updated: Apr. 15, 2022 at 2:24 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
WBTV Investigates: School district won’t comment on whether CMS staff face discipline.
Updated: Apr. 13, 2022 at 11:46 AM EDT
|By Brad Dickerson, Nick Ochsner and Courtney Cole
Authorities said the man’s roommate came forward with the information.
Updated: Apr. 1, 2022 at 7:25 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
The American Legion is warning veterans about a North Carolina-based company it says preys on service members. Veterans Guardian charges veterans for help submitting benefit claims to the VA, which other organizations will do for free.
Updated: Mar. 31, 2022 at 9:57 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
A new report from the watchdog for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Office of Inspector General, details problems with top regional VA leadership that it says led to decreased care for veterans.
Updated: Mar. 31, 2022 at 8:05 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has missed multiple deadlines to submit data to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The data is required to be submitted each year and includes statistics on student population, discipline and reports of incidents on school campuses, including reported rapes and sexual assaults. A district spokeswoman has not provided an explanation for why the deadline was missed.
Updated: Mar. 15, 2022 at 6:41 PM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
FBI connects man to missing women from Charlotte, N.C. and Greenville, S.C.
Updated: Mar. 15, 2022 at 10:10 AM EDT
|By Nick Ochsner
What are state leaders doing each day? By law, the public has a right to know. But we found some state agencies taking much longer to producer their leader's calendar than others.
Updated: Mar. 8, 2022 at 11:26 AM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
In North Carolina, a social worker has to go to court and get a judge’s order to remove a child from their parents’ home. But a WBTV investigation has found social workers taking children from their parents' homes without a court order in Cleveland and Gaston Counties. No official in Cleveland County, Gaston County or at N.C. DHHS will answer our questions.
Updated: Mar. 1, 2022 at 7:48 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
Diann Weston was reassigned from her job as Hawthorne Academy HS's principal to a job that pays substantially less after a WBTV investigation found Weston suspended a student who reported a sexual assault. Despite that, school records show she's still making more than $130,000 a year. Weston's former assistant principal, who was also reassigned, is making roughly $10,000 more than the pay scale for her new job.
Updated: Feb. 21, 2022 at 6:56 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
A WBTV investigation has uncovered a group of people living in eastern North Carolina who obtained nearly $250,000 in state and federal aid money by submitting fraudulent applications for assistance. The head of the state office that approved the fraudulent grants dismissed the findings as insignificant compared to the amount of money the program has awarded.
Updated: Feb. 15, 2022 at 7:17 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
A top state senator is asking questions of N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Cody Kinsley after a WBTV investigation found an eight-year-old boy reported being sexually abused in a group foster home. DHHS officials continue their refusal to answer questions.
Updated: Feb. 10, 2022 at 11:57 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has taken no concrete action in response to a report with dozens of recommendations from a task force formed to study how the district can better handle reported sexual violence.
Updated: Feb. 8, 2022 at 8:51 PM EST
|By Nick Ochsner
Attorney General Josh Stein defended a science that has sent at least four innocent men to prison in North Carolina. Stein refused to answer WBTV's questions on camera for nearly a year. But that changed in early February.
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