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.
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.
In a news release, GT Real Estate said the new reorgnization plan would make $82 million available to pay off claims from contractors and York County. Another $20 million or more would be set aside for Rock Hill from the proceeds of the sale of the property.
The contractor, Chris Bradshaw and his company R-Cubed Charlotte Investment Group, which also goes by City View Terraces, were foreclosed on by the lender for the project. Court records show Bradshaw placed the winning bid at the foreclosure sale but failed to pay the money to secure the property.
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.
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.
CATS buses are missing out on money, possibly millions of dollars, because of broken and malfunctioning fareboxes. A WBTV hidden-camera investigation found roughly half of the fareboxes used to punch tickets and collect money aren’t working properly. The numbers are backed up by riders and drivers who have told WBTV the problem has existed for months without a fix.
A popular herbicide ingredient some farmers say is vital to business has devastated other farms because of the chemical's ability to drift under certain conditions. Enforcing the rules is in the hands of states, but there is a growing concern over whether federal action needs to be taken.
Carter Lumber sued Bradshaw’s company saying they were owed nearly a million dollars in labor and material Bradshaw never paid. But in the three months since the property was transferred, the lawsuit has stayed stagnant, and now Hughes and Longarzo are negotiating with Carter.
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.
Kids often look for the latest fashions as they head back to school, but the cost of new clothes can quickly add up. In this Watching Your Wallet Consumer Investigator Rachel DePompa has suggestions for savings as you dress your child for the upcoming school year.
The interview comes as focus intensifies on what CATS, the CEO and the private contractor managing day-to-day operations of CATS bus division, is doing to improve the ongoing problems.
It’s a $60 billion a year industry that’s a relentless target for cybercriminals. According to a recent security report, web attacks against the global video game industry grew by 340 % in 2020. Consumer Investigator Rachel DePompa has the security advice you need before you, or your children, get hacked and it's game over.
The July 17 memo from Jones also mentions the contractor from the WBTV Investigation, RATP Dev, several times and says they will be part of the review process. The city manager told council he directed his staff to prepare a “request for proposals” for the bus operations service contract currently held by RATP Dev.
The WBTV Investigates team is continuing to reveal how medical debt is impacting people across the Charlotte area. Durham’s situation raises new questions about hospitals’ responsibility to provide charity care for people who are stuck with years old unpaid bills.
For weeks, Charlotte's transit service, CATS, has claimed its bus service would be impacted by a high number of unexpected driver absences. But internal CATS records show the actual number of unplanned driver absences are far lower than what the transit service has claimed.
WBTV began investigating the bus system after months of problems plagued CATS operations: two shootings, dozens of daily driver absences, buses that don’t show up on schedule and other trips that are never made at all. The lack of clarity among city leaders on who was controlling the bus system’s operations changed after WBTV started asking questions for this story in June.
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.
Despite the dozens of warnings, the tale of Water Resources, Inc. highlights the consequences a slow-moving bureaucracy can have on the well-being of North Carolinians. Residents in these communities are calling on NCDEQ, NCUC, NCDOJ and, to some extent, the Office of the Governor to finally hold the utility accountable but have serious doubts because of their lack of action so far.
When a Charlotte man tested positive for COVID-19 the morning of his flight, he didn’t think twice before making the choice to quarantine and reschedule his travels.
While Judge Karen Owens indicated that she would ultimately approve a DIP plan, she opened the door for the possibility of lawsuits from the governments and various companies that claim they are owed money.
A gas station in Wingate, N.C. sold gas diluted with water that damaged drivers’ cars. WBTV started investigating the problem after a call to our tip line. A state inspector later confirmed the problem. Now the fuel distribution company is working to cover the cost of damage to drivers' cars.
In 2005, Terry Belk and his wife Sandra signed a Deed of Trust with Atrium. Essentially, Atrium has a claim on part of the equity of his home, $23,311 in this case. It’s separate from the lawsuit and altogether puts his debt at about $30,000.
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.
The money will come from Charlotte’s Tourism Fund, which is revenue from hospitality taxes like hotels and rental cars. Councilmembers continued to bemoan the city’s lack of transparency when it comes to other projects that are counting on funds from the same source.
The WBTV Investigation raises more questions about whether hospitals are complying with state law to notify patients of garnishments and their right to protest.
Data shows between January 1st and March 31st, CATS buses missed nearly 98 trips per day. The consequnces to riders can be significant but CATS isn’t the only transit organization struggling with providing the service its promised.
Sometimes a surgeon is the salesman. Across the country, there are physician-owned distributorships where doctors own part of a medical device company and then buy (or have their hospital buy) that hardware to use in their own surgeries.
Homeowners in Indian Land started receiving reimbursements from Duke Energy for property damage after a WBTV Investigation exposed a pattern of power surges.
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.
WBTV first reported on wastewater capacity issues in July 2021 and things have only gotten more contentious since between politicians, staff, developers and anyone else trying to figure out the future of Union County, one of the fastest growing areas in North Carolina.
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.
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.
Who is driving the plan and where to are questions WBTV is trying to get answers to, since hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in both Carolinas are on the line.
In Mecklenburg County, just ten percent of people in majority-white communities have medical debt in collections, while in communities of color it’s more than double.
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.
Shane Bare was quickly granted a victory in his appeal for coverage of a live-saving drug to treat his CIDP. It’s a far cry from his last battle against his plan sponor and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services when he had to appeal denials five times before finally winning approval from a judge.
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.
A business owner who had to shutdown her company after the state license was surrendered is still collecting payments from customers who are stuck with broken equipment.
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.
