Article published Jun 14, 2004
Building costs exceed estimates
Construction of an administration building for the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office at the site of the new jail will cost almost twice what officials had originally predicted.
In October, officials estimated that the 3,000-square-foot building, which will house the sheriff, his chief deputy and administrative staff, would cost between $300,000 and $375,000.
Last week, the Board of Commissioners approved a contract with Waldkirch & Saunders of Wilmington for $605,733. The county also agreed to tack on another $90,000 for other costs associated with the project, bringing the total project budget to $695,733.
The project came under scrutiny during recent commissioners' meeting when Chairman Bobby Greer questioned why the price tag had doubled.
At that time, the total project budget was $759,033, which included moving expenses, a video surveillance system, furniture and several other items not approved by the sheriff.
"Somebody's got to get a grip on this," Mr. Greer said. "I don't want to just have an open checkbook."
As a result, Sheriff Sid Causey met with county officials to trim the budget. He had told the commissioners that he didn't understand why the budget had grown so much. Ultimately, the sheriff cut $63,300 from the project budget.
Mr. Greer said he felt better knowing that the budget had been reduced.
County Manager Allen O'Neal said the cost of materials contributed to the higher construction budget. For instance, he said, steel prices have gone up dramatically in recent months. Estimates put the increase at anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent.
CONCRETE COST: Mr. O'Neal also noted that the pre-cast concrete being used has driven up the cost. Because it's such a small project, the concrete costs more than it would have cost had the building been constructed at the same time as the jail, he said.
Money for the administration building is coming from a variety of sources, including contributions from the Sheriff's Office and the county's savings account. Once the building is complete, the Sheriff's Office administration will move there from the law enforcement center in downtown Wilmington.
The jail project has been surrounded by controversy and is already almost two years behind schedule. The most recent predictions have inmates moving in around the end of August.
Sherry Jones: 343-2378
sherry.jones@starnewsonline.com Published: Jun 13, 2004
Modified: Jun 13, 2004 9:18 AM

Killings jolt UNCW, city, newspaper
Shooting-suicide stirs issue: What could have stopped it?

By MARTHA QUILLIN, Staff Writer
WILMINGTON -- Christen Marie Naujoks was a beaming, tender-hearted young woman who would have made a fine marine biologist or special-education teacher. Whatever path she might have chosen, those who knew her say she was destined to do good.
The 22-year-old UNC-Wilmington student was killed June 4 by a man who, for the past few weeks at least, was just as determined to do harm.
After shooting Naujoks, his ex-girlfriend, on a sidewalk at her apartment complex, John Brian Peck, 28, headed west, apparently toward Ohio with the intent of murdering Naujoks' mother. Police say he planned to kill her and several other women.
Before he could get there, he was confronted by rangers and police in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He wheeled his car around at a roadblock, fired a few shots at officers and then shot himself. His car tumbled 60 feet almost straight down.
Images of the two dead young people have haunted Wilmington the past week. Friends, family and co-workers of Naujoks and Peck, along with police, university administrators, domestic violence victims' advocates and the local newspaper, which knew she was in danger, have asked the question that lingers after a woman is killed by someone she knew.
Could anything have stopped him?
Marie Brodie, a training specialist with the N.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Durham, says the question is unanswerable, but worth contemplating, because it recognizes that society has an obligation to try to protect victims of domestic abuse.
"There are two things I try to keep in mind," Brodie said: "That abuser committed that murder, and that abuser committed that murder alone.
"But the second thing is, we as a society, and as a community around that couple, have some sort of responsibility in terms of doing everything we can with the knowledge that we have to keep battered women safe."
That might mean helping a woman into a shelter or teaching her about safety planning so that when the time is right, she can escape. It might just be serving as a confidant, to make sure the victim doesn't feel isolated.
Naujoks' case is the kind of domestic violence that is especially frustrating for those who advocate for victims: The woman recognizes she is in danger, confides in friends and family, seeks the legal protection available to her -- and still ends up as prey.
Angry outbursts
Tina Nelson, a friend of Naujoks and classmate at UNC-Wilmington, said Naujoks and Peck had dated about two years. They met when both worked at a Wilmington pet store, Nelson said.
"I was really happy for her at first," Nelson said, because Naujoks was far from her home and family and seemed lonely. She enjoyed Peck's attention and the time the two spent together.
But gradually, Nelson said, Peck began to have angry outbursts.
"Sometimes it was directed at Christen, and sometimes it was at something else," Nelson said. "But she was always the one who had to be there."
They broke up and got back together several times, Nelson said. Finally, in April, over spring break, Naujoks broke up with Peck for good. Then the real trouble started.
Peck called the Naujoks' home in Solon, Ohio, leaving more than a dozen obscene messages. When classes resumed, Peck followed Naujoks around campus and, she later told police, sometimes kept her from getting in her car.
Naujoks sought help from university police, who said they would do what they could while she was on school grounds. Because she lived off campus, they urged her to talk to local law enforcement as well.
At some point, Nelson said, Naujoks hired a private detective, who checked Peck's background and found that he had pleaded guilty to two felony charges and a misdemeanor in the sexual assault of a former girlfriend in 2001. Court records show he was originally charged with first-degree rape in the case. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, ordered to attend anger management classes and placed on probation for three years, which included the time he was dating Naujoks.
Naujoks obtained a restraining order against Peck in late April. He was arrested within a week for violating the order by stalking and harassing her. The couple was due in court on the matter this past Wednesday.
Second thoughts
The Wilmington Star-News got interested in the case after another student, Jennifer Faulkner of Cary, was raped and killed in a dorm room on campus May 7. A fellow student, Curtis Timothy Dixon of Charlotte, has been charged in her death.
After Dixon's arrest, the newspaper reported that Dixon had failed to disclose his criminal history on his application to attend UNC-Wilmington. Because the school does not conduct criminal background checks of prospective students, administrators had no way to know about it.
Christen Naujoks' mother, Holly, called the paper after that story ran. She said her daughter was being stalked by Peck, another student who had lied on his application, saying he had never been convicted of a serious crime.
Allen Parsons, executive editor of the Star-News, said Holly Naujoks believed that the school could do more to help her daughter and others who become the victims of harassment.
Reporter Patrick Gannon worked on the story for a week to 10 days, contacting Peck and Christen Naujoks. Peck gave Gannon an interview. Naujoks decided not to but understood that a story was being written, Parsons said.
After Gannon inquired about Peck, university officials confirmed Peck's criminal history and suspended him. School was already out for the summer.
Two days before the story was to be published, Holly Naujoks called Gannon again, with second thoughts. She said she was worried the story might push Peck toward more violence. She asked whether it could hold for a while.
"She thought it might set him off," Parsons said last week. The reporter referred Mrs. Naujoks to his editors. She spoke with Parsons, and he and other editors discussed whether to run the story, kill it, or try to find another case to illustrate the absence of criminal backgrounding throughout the UNC system.
The paper decided to publish the story, in part, Parsons said, because it would not tell Peck anything about his victim he did not already know, such as her name, where she lived, worked, or went to school. And by running the story, Parsons said, the paper would raise the issue of whether conducting background checks could reduce campus violence.
The story ran on the Star-News' front page Sunday, May 30. It's not clear whether Peck saw it.
Other killings planned?
After Naujoks was killed, investigators said they found evidence at Peck's rental house indicating he had been planning Christen Naujoks' death since at least mid-May, before her mother called the Star-News. They also said they found evidence that Peck intended to kill Holly Naujoks; the former girlfriend who filed the rape charges; his own mother, who lives in Florida; and a Florida therapist he had seen as a young man.
Parsons said the staff at the newspaper has been devastated by Christen Naujoks' killing. Although he is ambivalent about the proper tactics, he is resolute about the newspaper's role in covering domestic violence.
"What if you know about it, and you don't write about it?" he said. "If we hadn't written about it, would there have been this manhunt, and would Peck have been found before he committed more murders?"
In the end, he said, "John Peck did this. We didn't have the power to stop him. We didn't have the power to start him up. Her family didn't have the power to stop him. The people who helped her fill out the restraining order didn't have the power to stop him. The sheriff's department didn't have the power to stop him. His father didn't have the power to stop him.
"He is the one who is responsible."
Staff writer Martha Quillin can be reached at 829-8989 or marthaq@newsobserver.com.
© Copyright 2004, The News & Observer Publishing Company,
a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company

------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted on Fri, Jun. 11, 2004
Killings prompt UNC policy review
Schools debate whether checks could weed out dangerous applicants
PETER SMOLOWITZ
Staff Writer
North Carolina's public colleges are questioning their admission policies after two students who had attended UNC Wilmington were allegedly murdered by former classmates who lied about their criminal backgrounds when applying.
The cases, one of which led to a Charlotte man's arrest, have captured national attention and even sparked controversy about a newspaper's role in the second death.
One of the darkest chapters in UNC Wilmington history began last month with the slaying of Jessica Faulkner, 18 of Cary. The following week, Charlotte's Curtis Dixon, 21, was arrested by campus police. The freshman was accused of raping and murdering Faulkner in their dorm.
Most schools, including UNC Wilmington, ask applicants if they have been convicted of crimes more serious than traffic violations. Dixon had a conviction for misdemeanor larceny that he didn't disclose.
After the killing, Holly Naujoks called the Wilmington Star-News, urging the paper to highlight the problem of harassment on campus, and she said her daughter was also a victim.
Naujoks' daughter, Christen, had obtained a restraining order against former boyfriend John Peck, according to police and court documents. Once he left 17 obscene messages on her voicemail, at one point threatening, "You're mine." Another time, he blocked her as she tried to drive off, warning he would "push her down in the seat" if she didn't stop screaming.
On his application, Peck, a 27-year-old junior, did not mention that he pleaded guilty in November 2001 to assaulting a female and to crimes against nature; a girlfriend had claimed he raped her at gunpoint.
Peck told the Star-News in a May 30 story that he lied on his application, because "otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten in." He was suspended after the paper contacted the school.
Days before the story ran, Holly Naujoks asked the paper's executive editor not to include the names of her daughter or Peck in the story. The editor said he wasn't sure how a news article would make things worse since Peck already knew Christen Naujoks, and that she had already filed charges against him of stalking and harassment.
Christen, 22, was killed last Friday. She was shot with an assault rifle, and shortly after the murder, police said Peck's father called 911, saying his son had just called and said he had shot someone.
Police later found a tape Peck made that detailed plans to kill Christen, her mother, his mother, his childhood therapist and the woman who accused him of rape in 2001. A three-day manhunt ended Monday in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when Peck fatally shot himself in the head before his car plunged into a ravine, police said.
Some in the community have blamed the Star-News for fueling Peck's anger, but Managing Editor Tim Griggs said it's impossible to predict people's behavior.
"I know that the newspaper didn't pull that trigger, that the newspaper didn't violate her restraining order," he said. "There is only one person responsible for this, and that's John Peck."
Even before Thursday's memorial service for Christen Naujoks, officials were wondering what more could have been done to protect the women.
Separate task forces at UNC Wilmington and across the 16-campus UNC system will study whether they should conduct criminal background checks. But admissions directors and analysts are skeptical.
The UNC schools receive about 100,000 applications a year from across the country and the world. It would be time consuming and expensive to do the research, and since many students are younger than 18, even if they have criminal convictions, the juvenile-court records would likely be confidential.
"It's an extreme measure that is unlikely to hold up under any cost-benefit analysis," said Sheldon Steinbach of the Washington-based American Council on Education.
UNC Charlotte receives 19,000 applications annually, said admissions director Craig Fulton. Of those, fewer than 200 typically raise questions about criminal backgrounds that require further investigation.
"What we have is a system that works when people tell the truth," Fulton said. "I'm not sure any system would be unflawed if people deliberately try to deceive."
When Christen and Holly Naujoks first reported Peck's harassment to campus police, a captain dispatched a copy of her class schedule and ordered officers to "respond immediately" if she called for help. The campus police also persuaded her to seek assistance from the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office.
"At the time Christen was killed, she had in place the strongest protection available to her," UNC Wilmington Police Chief David Donaldson told The News & Observer of Raleigh. "I don't know anything else we could have done."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Smolowitz: (704) 358-5249; psmolowitz@charlotteobserver.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2004 Charlotte Observer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.charlotte.com

Car Theft Occurs On North Lumina Avenue
Sheriff’s Department Arrests Driver for DWI, Cocaine And Heroin Possession
By Crystal Allen
Staff Writer
A car stolen from North Lumina Avenue on May 30 was returned to its owner by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office after the driver was arrested for felonious possession of drugs on Carolina Beach Road.
Heidi Gentry, 38, was charged by the Wrightsville Beach Police with possession of a stolen vehicle and later charged with stealing a motor vehicle. She was also charged by the sheriff’s office with driving while intoxicated, possession of cocaine, possession of heroin and other traffic-related offenses.
The victim reported that the car was stolen between 10 a.m. on Sunday and noon on Monday near the corner of North Lumina Avenue and Salisbury Street. The 2003 Nissan 350Z is valued at $35,000. The victim said the car was locked and the keys were not in the vehicle.
On Monday, Officer A.B. Freeman began investigating the theft and found that the license plate had been run through the Department of Criminal Investigations seven times between 8:13 p.m. on Sunday and 1:43 a.m. on Monday by the sheriff’s office. After contacting the sheriff’s office, Freeman learned Gentry was arrested in the 6600 block of Carolina Beach Road, and the narcotics unit of the sheriff’s office seized the vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Sunday. Gentry was being held at the New Hanover County Detention Facility.
At the time Gentry was arrested, the vehicle had not been reported stolen, Freeman said. Freeman said he secured a warrant for Gentry and transferred the vehicle back to the owner. “They were very happy to get it back,” he said. Freeman said there was $5,000 in damage to the exterior of the car.
A valet key to the car was in the ignition of the vehicle. The victim said the valet key was in the owner’s manual in the rear pocket of the front seat.
On June 1, Freeman said he went to the jail to pick Gentry up and transported her to the Wrightsville Beach Police Department, where she was interviewed by Freeman, Lt. Hovie Pope and Sgt. F.S. Kennedy. “She said she borrowed the car from a friend for $50,” Freeman said. “She said her friend told her that it was her cousin’s car.” She was then charged for possessing a stolen vehicle.
Freeman said several other people were interviewed, and the stories did not correspond. “Something did not add up,” he said.
On June 2, Gentry was interviewed a second time by Freeman and Det. M.A. Altilio. “She admitted to taking the car,” Freeman said. “But she said she would have to get a lawyer before she advised us how she took the car.” Gentry was then charged with larceny of a motor vehicle. As of Wednesday afternoon, Gentry was held in the New Hanover County Detention Facility under a $7,000 bond.
crystal@luminanews.com
http://www.luminanews.com/news_articles.asp?newsid=204

Click-It Or Ticket Concludes With Over 100 Violations
Annual Campaign Ends In North Carolina
By Crystal Allen
Staff Writer
More than 100 violations were issued by the Wrightsville Beach Police Department for seatbelt and criminal violations during the two-week span of the latest Click-It or Ticket.
Click It or Ticket is a part of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, which sets the dates annually.
Chief John Carey said the event was successful. “It resulted in criminal charges as well as occupant restraint enforcement,” he said.
During the first week of enforcement on the beach from May 24 through 30, one saturation, or random patrol, was held. Six driving while intoxicated charges, 29 occupant restraint charges, 33 other traffic violations, seven drug violations and five other criminal violations were issued.
During the first week of the program in New Hanover County, 35 DWI charges, 95 occupant restraint, 208 traffic violations and 359 criminal violations were issued.
During the second week of enforcement in Wrightsville Beach, from May 31 to June 6, no saturation, or random patrols, were held. Six people were charged for driving while intoxicated, eight were charged safety belt violations, 17 were charged with other traffic violations, seven were charged with drug violations and four were charged with other criminal violations.
Statistics were not immediately available for New Hanover County’s second week of the program. A safety belt violation costs $25 fine and $50 in court costs, with the fine going to the school system. Two points will also be added to the driver’s license record, according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol.

townhall.com
Criminal Background Checks for Dummies
Mike S. Adams
June 9, 2004Recently, I reported on a murder that occurred during final exam week on the campus of UNC-Wilmington. The victim, Jessica Faulkner, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in her dormitory on May 5th. Another student, Curtis Dixon, has been indicted for that kidnapping, rape, and murder and is now awaiting trial.
Perhaps, the most tragic aspect of the case was apparent evidence that the murder could have been prevented by the authorities. During his call to the 911 dispatcher, the victim’s father, John Faulkner, indicated that Jessica was being stalked by Dixon prior to his alleged murder of the eighteen year-old student.
Since then, the assertion that the authorities knew about this alleged stalking has been called into question. Nonetheless, new evidence has emerged, which adds credence to the argument that the murder could have been prevented. Specifically, it has now been discovered that Dixon lied about his criminal record to get into school at UNC-Wilmington.
In addition to being home schooled after dropping out of school, it has now been revealed that Dixon has a conviction for larceny. Apparently, Dixon masked that conviction and also fabricated a false military record in order to get into UNC-Wilmington. Even more disturbing is the fact that Dixon’s father is an administrator (assistant to the chancellor) at UNC-Charlotte. It is difficult for some to imagine that Dixon’s father could not have suspected that his son lied about his past when he was admitted to UNC-Wilmington, assuming he was aware of his son’s criminal record. Sadly, Dixon is accused of killing a student at a university that never should have admitted him.
But the story gets even worse. Less than one month later, another female student at UNCW, Christen Naujoks, has been murdered in cold blood. This time the murderer, John Peck, was a former student who was recently expelled from UNCW. What was the reason for his expulsion? He lied about his criminal record on his application to UNCW. After being charged with first degree rape and first degree sexual offense, he pleaded guilty to a count of assault against a female and two counts of crimes against nature in 2001.
Shortly after the murder of Faulkner, UNC-Wilmington found out about Peck’s criminal past and expelled him. Then, on June 4th, he shot and killed Christen Naujoks. Just a few days later, he died in a high-speed chase as he was fleeing from the authorities.
While this nightmare on our campus seems so very strange, the solution is actually rather simple. UNC-Wilmington needs to perform criminal background checks on all of its students instead of taking them at their honor in the application process. And, of course, they need to do the background checks before the students arrive on campus. While is was certainly appropriate to expel John Peck for lying about his criminal past, it should have been done before he was actually admitted to the university, not after he was admitted and began stalking a fellow student.
While the need for these comprehensive and early background checks is obvious to the general public, it is now being rejected by the UNCW administration. Unbelievably, school officials are now saying that such background checks would be “unreasonable.” UNCW spokeswoman and Vice Chancellor Mimi Cunningham recently explained that “We rely on the honor of our students.” But that honor system has contributed to two murders in less than a month.
Nonetheless, the local paper reports that university officials have “no plans to consider modifications to the school’s admissions policy regarding criminal backgrounds.” Maybe the university should extend their “honor” system to cover SAT scores. Students could just tell us what they made without supplying documentation.
But why are these comprehensive background checks “unreasonable?” Would they be too time-consuming? Or would they just be too expensive?
Recently, I spoke with a friend who works for an accounting firm in Wilmington. As one of her responsibilities, she does criminal background checks for a retailer with hundreds of stores in North and South Carolina. She reported to me that she is capable of doing thousands of background checks per month by herself!
Remember that UNCW only admits a few thousand students per year. Between the time they are admitted in the spring and arrive in the fall, all background checks could be completed and those who lied on their applications could be expelled. Certainly, if they lied on their application, they would likely cheat on tests and plagiarize papers, even if they wouldn’t stalk and kill their fellow students.
In light of the fact that UNCW just paid $40,000 for Senator George Mitchell to speak for one hour, it is simply obscene to say that we can’t afford to pay someone to do these background checks. Do we care more about politics than the lives of our students? If we can afford to pay a faculty member to pass out condoms on campus so that our women are having “safe sex,” why not make sure that their partners weren’t charged with rape and convicted of “crimes against nature.” This is not very complicated. It is simply a matter of priorities.
The twin issues of financial and time constraints are simply moot. All we really need to do is require the students to pay for their own background checks and submit them with their applications. In some states, that may cost $10. In others, it may cost $30. But most students would gladly pay that small additional cost to get the added security it will bring to them and to their fellow students. Parents and taxpayers alike would applaud our new initiative. Indeed, we could become a model for the nation.
Yesterday, Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo announced that she is forming a task force to study the recent murder problem at UNCW. That is the typical academic approach, where the problem is seen as the environment and the solution is a complicated one that only a team of intellectuals can unravel.
Clearly, the administration has no intention of doing the right thing by following my simple advice. Therefore, we must go over their heads. Specifically, the citizens of North Carolina must demand that the governor either a) push for statewide implementation of my simple system, or b) provide a good reason for declining to do so.
I also hope that others around the country will e-mail or call (919.834.9000) Governor Easley demanding leadership on this issue. It is a simple matter of life and death.

Mike Adams (www.DrAdams.org) is an associate professor at UNC-Wilmington. He is the author of “Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel.”

©2004 Mike S. Adams

Published: Jun 9, 2004
Modified: Jun 9, 2004 6:47 AM
Hunt ends with death of Peck
Tapes tell of plans to kill a UNCW student and continue on a murderous rampageBy JOSH SHAFFER AND THOMASI MCDONALDJohn Brian Peck died angry and alone, face-down in a 60-foot ravine, leaving behind audiotapes describing plans to kill his ex-girlfriend, her mother and a therapist.
Investigators said Tuesday that sheriff's deputies found the recordings when they searched Peck's home after Friday's fatal shooting of 22-year-old Christen Naujoks, also learning of Peck's desire to kill his own mother.
"He told his father on at least one occasion that he would not be taken alive, and he would take some deputies with him," said W.T. Parker, chief deputy of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office.
But police and rangers cornered Peck late Monday night in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Wilmington man's SUV tumbled off a cliff after a shootout and chase, throwing his body clear.
Naujoks' family had spent the weekend in terrified seclusion, and Peck's death left them to grieve in peace.
"Wilmington will always be a special town for us, filled with special memories of being with our daughter," Holly Naujoks said in a shaky voice at a news conference in the city. "We don't know how we're going to go on. We miss her blessed being."
Peck spent 72 hours on the run, armed with an assault rifle, buying women's clothes for a disguise and printing a map to his victim's parents' house. Throughout his three-day disappearance, he called family and friends repeatedly.
With Peck dead, deputies were free to discuss more details of Peck's past and the Friday-night shooting.
"He said he intended to go to Ohio and kill Mrs. Naujoks," Parker said. "He said he intended to go to Florida and kill his mother and kill his therapist."
Peck, 28, had a history of violent behavior, and Parker said he had been in therapy since childhood with his mother in Florida. "Suffice it to say he had a bad childhood," Parker said.
Efforts to reach Peck's mother and father failed Tuesday.
Peck moved to Wilmington to live with his father, Larry, a retired New Hanover County sheriff's deputy, when he was 16, said sheriff's Capt. L.P. Hines.
A woman who dated Peck in the late 1990s has said he attacked her when she tried to break off their relationship. He was placed on probation in 2001 after his conviction for sexually assaulting another woman, but he was not convicted on a rape charge.
"He was obviously someone we took very seriously at the time," Assistant District Attorney Ben David said at the Wilmington news conference. "We did the very best with what we had in that case in order to get him convicted of felony sex offense."
In April, Naujoks obtained a restraining order against Peck, a fellow student, shortly after he was arrested on charges of stalking her and making harassing telephone calls. Parker said Tuesday that Peck was furious that Naujoks' mother assisted in obtaining the order.
"Mr. Peck felt he was being pushed away," Parker said. "He used some vulgarities to describe Mrs. Naujoks and said she should stay out of Christen's business. Words to that effect."
On Friday night, he said, Peck spotted Christen Naujoks at Wilmington's Target store and followed her home to NorthChase Apartments outside the city. He called her to his Toyota 4Runner, but she didn't come.
Then, he started shooting.
"She said, 'Please don't hurt me,' '' Parker said. "She started to call 911 on her cell phone. She pushed the 911 on the dial pad but never got the chance to push the talk button."
He said she ran around the parking lot, banging on apartment doors for help.
"She was pounding with all her might and screaming," Parker said. "The folks inside the apartment heard the gunfire and hit the floor."
New Hanover County investigators released recordings of 911 calls made from the complex.
Male caller: "We just heard like five or six shots out here ... a lot of shots, like six, seven, eight shots. ..."
Emergency operator: "Can you give me any information on how bad they are?"
Male caller: "Yes, bad. They're shot. They're shot in the face. ... She's moving, but it don't look good."
A preliminary autopsy report said 11 bullets were taken from Naujoks' body.
Peck stayed in Wilmington after the shooting, Parker said, though deputies have not said where he hid.
When they searched his house in Wilmington, they found women's clothing, makeup and a wig, and they suspected he would try to disguise himself as a woman. Deputies also found maps to the Naujoks family home in Solon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Neighbors there hunkered down, fearing Peck would appear.
Peck went first to the Triangle on Saturday morning, Parker said. His next stop was in Asheville, where he was spotted Sunday. There, he bought a tent, sleeping bag, backpack and Coleman stove. On Monday afternoon, he was seen in Johnson City, Tenn.
About 11:15 p.m. Monday a Smoky Mountains National Park ranger spotted Peck's 4Runner in the Newfound Gap campground parking lot, Jim Northrup, the park's chief ranger, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Cherokee. The site is on the state line separating North Carolina and Tennessee.
Peck said he was camping, but the ranger, whom park officials would not identify, called for backup and confronted Peck again, Parker said. The 4Runner left the parking lot and sped toward Cherokee.
About 11:30 p.m., Peck came upon a roadblock staffed by rangers and Cherokee police officers on U.S. 441, about seven miles north of Cherokee.
"He stopped, put the truck in reverse and, while backing and turning around, took several shots at law enforcement officers," Northrup said. "Fire was returned."
Peck drove back the way he had come. "Officers had a difficult time staying up with the vehicle," Northrup said.
About four miles from the roadblock, the vehicle appeared to pull over and turn off its lights. "Officers thought the suspect was about to confront them or flee," Northrup said.
As officers warily approached, they discovered Peck "had actually driven off the road's edge and tumbled 60 to 80 feet down the embankment," Northrup said. "His body was thrown out and found adjacent to the vehicle. A long gun also was found in the vehicle."
Peck's body and vehicle were taken from the ravine about 3:30 p.m., a park news release said.
Investigators would not say whether Peck died from a gunshot wound or the accident. His body was being taken to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill for an autopsy.
(Correspondent Josh Shaffer reported from Wilmington, and correspondent Lisa Duff reported from Cherokee.)
Staff writer Thomasi McDonald can be reached at 829-4533 or tmcdonal@newsobserver.com.
© Copyright 2004, The News & Observer Publishing Company,
a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company

WRAL.com
NCSU Vice Provost Says UNCW Murders Could Have Happened On Any Campus
Two UNCW Students Killed In Past Month
POSTED: 11:18 AM EDT June 7, 2004
UPDATED: 11:29 PM EDT June 7, 2004
WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Following the weekend killing of a University of North Carolina at Wilmington student -- the second murder of a female UNCW student on or near campus in the past month -- Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo said the school will step up its efforts to "review procedures and processes to protect our students."This recent tragedy further compels our commitment and resolve to explore what additional measures, if any, the university can take to ensure the safety of our university community," DePaolo said.
Meanwhile, Thomas Conway, a vice provost at North Carolina State University, said: "This could have happened on any of our campuses.
"None of us are immune to this kind of activity," Conway said.
Christen Naujoks, a junior transfer who had taken classes the past academic year but was not scheduled to return, was fatally shot at her apartment complex in Wilmington Friday night. The alleged suspect, John Peck, was a former student at the university.
After it recently was discovered that Peck had lied on his admissions application regarding his criminal background, UNCW suspended him effective May 27.
After a recent visit by Naujoks to university police, the police assisted her in obtaining a protective order against Peck.
In that filing, Naujoks advised police to consider Peck a threat.
"He's crazy," she wrote. "He will do anything to get away from police."
A month ago, UNCW student Jessica Faulkner, of Cary, was murdered in her dorm room. The suspect in that case, Curtis Dixon, also allegedly lied on his application about past criminal offenses -- bringing the school's admissions policy under scrutiny.
"The death of Jessica Faulkner prompted us to review procedures and processes to protect our students," DePaolo said.
Legal counsel for the UNC system said they were not aware of any university that conducted criminal background checks on every student. So it is not hard to hide a criminal history on a college application.
Conway said applicants who check "yes" to a criminal conviction are investigated. Those who check "no" simply are not. He said it would be difficult to conduct criminal background checks for every applicant at N.C. State and UNC systemwide.
"What we'd probably end up doing is bogging down the system well beyond what the public would tolerate in terms of our admissions processes," he said, "particularly at public institutions."
N.C. State and the other 15 UNC campuses will form a task force to look at what can be done from an admissions standpoint. But a spokesman for the UNC system said the issue of preventing violence on campuses may better be suited for the public safety department.
"The biggest thing you want to do is educate to reduce the risk," said NCSU police Sgt. Jon Barnwell.
But sometimes, said Barnwell, it takes a reminder like the murders at UNCW to get campus police and communities to work together to reduce the risk.
"When something does happen, then it does remind you that we have a bigger job to do, not just in reacting, but in being proactive."
Authorities said Monday they have not located Peck, who is considered dangerous and armed with an assault rifle. Investigators said Peck has been in contact with his father but did not elaborate on what was discussed between the two.
"No homicide is good, but this one was particularly violent," said New Hanover Sheriff's Chief Deputy Tom Parker.
Parker said nearly all of the department's 25 detectives were working on the case.
There have been reported sightings of Peck in Asheville on Sunday and Johnson City, Tenn., on Monday. Authorities found a wig and women's clothing inside his home, so he may be disguising himself as a woman.
Because Peck grew up in a law enforcement family -- his father is a former employee of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office -- authorities are concerned that he is a serious threat and knows how to evade officials.
Investigators said that Peck saw Naujoks driving around town Friday, followed her to her house and then confronted her.
Peck is believed to be headed toward Naujok's parents' home in Ohio, or to his mother's house in Florida. Investigators carried out an electronic search on Peck's computer and found that he visited Mapquest and looked up directions to Naujok's parents' address.
Peck reportedly has not made any direct threats to Naujok's family. But in a March 2004 restraining order, Naujoks claimed Peck threatened to get a gun, go to her house and kill himself on her doorstep.
Reporter: Kelcey Carlson
Online Producer: Paul Ensslin
Copyright 2004 by WRAL.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Paper Says Story Did Not Lead to Girl's Murder
By Joe Strupp
Published: June 07, 2004
NEW YORK The top editor of the Star-News in Wilmington, N.C. says his paper was right to publish a story about a local college student being stalked by a former boyfriend, even though the boyfriend allegedly shot the student to
death last week and the student's mother had asked the paper not to run the story.
But Executive Editor Allen Parsons says he would resign from his post if needed to help the paper recover from what he says has been a difficult situation. "I don't think it should come to that," he told E&P. "But if my
fears are realized, that people come to interpret this as something it is not -- a heartless disregard for people -- then I would step aside because I would be so closely aligned with it that I would have to leave to prevent
the paper from suffering damage to its credibility or reputation."
Publisher Ken Svanum stood by Parsons and the paper, saying no resignations are likely. "That is not the case," he said about any resignation speculation. "I think the community is shook, but the paper did what it should."
Parsons' comments followed the Friday murder of Christen Marie Naujoks, 22, a student at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Investigators believe she was shot to death by John Brian Peck, 28, a former UNCW student and ex-boyfriend of Naujoks.
The New Hanover County Sheriff's Office has charged Peck with first-degree murder, according to a department spokesman. He remained at-large Monday night, according to chief deputy sheriff Tom Parker, who said the investigation has not involved the newspaper's reporting. "At this point, we don't have any information ongoing related to the Star-News," he said. "I don't anticipate we will."
The Star-News (Click for QuikCap) first became interested in Naujoks following the May 5 killing of another UNCW student, Jessica Lee Faulkner. Police arrested a fellow student, Curtis Dixon, in that case and later revealed that he had lied on his college application about a previous criminal conviction.
At that point, Parsons said, Star-News editors wanted to know more about the university's process for checking such information on applications. During its reporting, the paper was contacted by Holly Naujoks, who told reporters about her daughter's harassment by Peck and a restraining order she had taken out against him.
During their research, Star-News reporters contacted UNCW officials to ask if Peck had informed them on his application of a previous conviction for sexual assault, said Mimi Cunningham, assistant to the university
chancellor. She said she personally assisted Star-News reporter Patrick Gannon with the research and asked Peck if he had lied on his application.
When Peck told the university he had lied, he was suspended on May 27, according to Cunningham, who stressed that the suspension was for lying, not for having a conviction. The Star-News published its story on May 31, which dealt with the entire issue of background checks and support for students who are abused or stalked, focusing on Peck and Naujoks, Parsons said.
But Naujoks' mother, who had gone to the paper initially, had asked that neither her daughter's name nor Peck's be included in a story. Parsons said the paper declined the request because it was an issue "we were concerned about," Parsons told E&P. "What safeguards are in the system?"
Parsons said he discussed the conflict with several editors, but in the end made the decision himself to run the article. "A big part of it was the previous killing and that the (Naujoks) family made us aware of it,"
Parsons explained. "They felt that the university didn't do all it could to make sure (Naujoks) wasn't tormented by this guy.
"In going forward, my thought was that there was nothing we were going to reveal that (Peck) didn't already know."
Parsons says he feels tremendous sympathy for the family but in no way believed the paper's story would lead to harm against Naujoks. "You can construct a situation in which you would not write almost any newspaper article," he argued. "You can't always know that something bad will happen. What you do as a journalist is find out the truth and print it."
Gannon, who could not be reached for comment, did not go to work on Monday, Parsons said, describing his reaction to the killing as "devastated." The editor said the reporter did not lobby either for or against the story being published. "I think he felt it was a decision his editors would have to make," Parsons said. "He was concerned about focusing on the university aspect of it."
Parsons said the tragedy has prompted him to put more coverage on the domestic violence issue in the future, saying "we're never going to let it be background noise."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is senior editor for E&P.

Neighbors fear murder suspect may show up
Solon resident killed in South
Monday, June 07, 2004
John Caniglia
Plain Dealer Reporter
Solon
Ridge Lane, usually teeming with children on a summer weekend afternoon, was quiet Sunday.
Neighbors feared the man suspected of killing Christen Naujoks in North Carolina may come looking for her family.
Investigators broadened their manhunt for John Peck, the former boyfriend of the 22-year-old college student from Solon. Police said authorities in North Carolina found that Peck had printed a computerized map that spelled out the directions to Naujoks' home, near Harper and Cannon roads.
Peck, 28, is wanted in the fatal shooting of Naujoks, a student at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. New Hanover County Sheriff Sidney Causey said Naujoks was attempting to get into a neighbor's apartment when Peck fired an assault-type rifle at her Friday night.
Authorities also found a computerized map leading to the home of Peck's mother, who lives in Florida.
"He has anger toward his mother as well," Solon police Sgt. Steve Galaska said. "Who knows what people think when they go off the deep end? Hopefully, he'll never get up this way. They don't have a clue as to whether he's headed to Florida or Ohio."
The Raleigh News & Observer reported that she had filed a restraining order against Peck in April, accusing him of stalking her.
Naujoks' mother, Holly, recently called the Wilmington Star-News and discussed Peck's past sexual-assault conviction involving another woman. The newspaper published a story May 30 that questioned the university's lack of domestic violence counseling.
The story said Naujoks had broken up with Peck, but that he followed her around school on three occasions attempting to talk to her. She later said Peck left her 17 obscene messages on her answering machine one day in March.
Peck told the newspaper that he would obey the order and wanted to put it behind him. "It is like I've been hit with a ton of bricks," he told the paper.
No one was at the family's home Sunday.
Naujoks graduated from Solon High School in 2000. Steve Andresen, who lives across the street from Naujoks' home on Ridge Lane, said she loved her cat and gardening, and had a strong desire to pursue marine biology. That's what prompted her to go to the Wilmington school, which is on the Atlantic coast. The school, however, listed her major as pre-education.
"This is dreadful," Andresen said. "She was a lovely, lovely young girl. She was bright and well-rounded and happy. This is such a tragedy."
He said her family had lived on Ridge Lane about seven or eight years. Another neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said Solon police had asked neighbors to leave the area, fearing that Peck may return.
"My wife worried that he might get the wrong house," the man said. "It is not every day when police come to your door and tell you to leave."
Solon police had extra officers working this weekend because of the case, Galaska said. Peck is believed to be driving a dark green Toyota 4 Runner.
Police also are looking for cars with plates not just from North Carolina but other states in case Peck is driving a stolen car.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jcaniglia@plaind.com, 216-999-4128

Copyright 2004 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.

Article published Jun 6, 2004
Manhunt continues for suspect in murder
Victim had complained she was being stalked
An intense manhunt continued Saturday for a 28-year-old man accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend to death at her NorthChase apartment complex.
New Hanover County sheriff's deputies have taken out a warrant for first-degree murder on John B. Peck, whom they accuse of killing Christen Marie Naujoks, 22, on Friday.
Mr. Peck, of 1202 Spofford Circle, had a court hearing scheduled for this Wednesday on charges of misdemeanor stalking and making harassing phone calls to Ms. Naujoks.
Ms. Naujoks is the second student from UNCW violently murdered within a month.
A pre-education major last spring, she had said in a written statement to the New Hanover County magistrate in April that she had complained to campus police about Mr. Peck following and harassing her, but officers told her "they couldn't do anything."
A spokeswoman at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington said Saturday that campus police helped Ms. Naujoks obtain a protective order, commonly known as a restraining order, but declined to elaborate.
P.J. Lapaire, a professor of French at UNCW, said Saturday that he remembers Ms. Naujoks, a student of his this past semester, mentioning to him that Mr. Peck had been "bothering her."
Dr. Lapaire added that her murder was still a shock to him.
"I didn't think it would lead to something this violent," Dr. Lapaire said.
Chief Deputy Tom Parker said during a news conference Saturday evening that deputies responded to Building I of the apartment complex about 9:45 p.m. to find Ms. Naujoks lying on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the body from a rifle similar to a Chinese-made SKS assault rifle.
She died at the scene.
Witnesses at the scene said the woman was banging on an apartment door as a man chased her with a rifle. He shot her three times, including once in the face.
The man then shot at witnesses before leaving the scene in a dark green Toyota 4Runner, with North Carolina license plate number SRR-8120.
About 50 law enforcement officials were on the scene Friday night, as Ms. Naujoks' body lay in front of apartment No. 3, downstairs from her apartment, covered with a sheet.
"There was a murder suspect on the loose," said Chief Deputy Parker, explaining it was the usual number of officers for that type of crime.
Chief Deputy Parker said Mr. Peck was considered armed and dangerous. In a protective order filed by Ms. Naujoks on April 26, she said law enforcement officials should consider Mr. Peck a threat to them, adding, "he's crazy. He will do anything to get away from police."
Officials continued their search Saturday night.
With a plane circling overhead, more than a dozen sheriff's deputies responded with their guns drawn Saturday to a wooded area at the end of Murrayville Road after believing they'd tracked down the suspect.
They discovered it was a family picnicking.
Officials said it wasn't clear when Mr. Peck might turn up, although he has a court appearance scheduled Wednesday.
An article in the May 30 Star-News detailed problems between the two. Ms. Naujoks' mother called the Star-News a few weeks ago in an attempt to get the newspaper to shed more light on stalking and harassment of students and the need for students to be given counseling on domestic abuse.
The mother spoke with the paper's executive editor, Allen Parsons, two nights before the story was to run, asking him not to print the names of her daughter or Mr. Peck.
She felt the article might lead to Mr. Peck causing her daughter harm.
But Mr. Parsons said the mother could not explain why a news article might make things worse. Ms. Naujoks and Mr. Peck were already acquainted, and Mr. Peck knew she had filed charges against him.
The mother called the article's author on Friday, shortly after the murder, and said in a measured tone that her daughter had been killed.
Mr. Parsons said Saturday his heart goes out to Ms. Naujoks' family, but he didn't feel the article pushed Mr. Peck to allegedly commit murder.
On April 26 Ms. Naujoks filed a complaint seeking a protective order by stating that Mr. Peck said, "I was thinking of taking a gun from my dad's house and killing myself on your doorstep."
She said he left 17 obscene messages on her answering machine March 5.
Campus officials said Saturday that Ms. Naujoks was not scheduled to return to school.
Mr. Peck pleaded guilty in November 2001 to a misdemeanor count of assault on a female and two felony counts of crimes against nature, a sex offense. He was originally charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sex offense after an incident with a girlfriend who claimed he raped her and threatened her with a handgun, according to court documents.
Mr. Peck pleaded guilty to the less serious charges.
Meanwhile, campus officials reported Saturday that Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo said the university was stepping up attempts to review procedures to protect students in response to the May murder of student Jessica Faulkner, 18. Ms. Faulkner was raped and strangled in a school dormitory on the last day of final exams.
Student Curtis Dixon has been charged with that murder.
Both he and Mr. Peck had been accused of lying on their admission applications about their criminal history. Mr. Peck was kicked out of school because of falsifying his application.
Staff writer Sherry Jones contributed to this story.
Millard K. Ives: 343-2075
millard.ives@starnewsonline.com

Published: Jun 6, 2004
Modified: Jun 6, 2004 5:57 AM
UNCW student shot dead
Her mother had spoken with paper about ex-boyfriend
By JOSH SHAFFER AND CRAIG JARVISWILMINGTON -- Sheriff's deputies Saturday searched for the former boyfriend of a UNC-Wilmington student who was slain near her home Friday night, just one month after a young Cary woman who was enrolled at the coastal university was killed in a dorm room.
Former UNCW student John Brian Peck, 28, of Wilmington has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Christen Marie Naujoks, 22, outside her apartment, the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department said.
Authorities said Peck is armed with an assault rifle and should be considered dangerous.
Naujoks had been frightened enough of Peck that she had taken out a restraining order against him in April, after his arrest on charges of stalking her and making harassing phone calls to her. Peck was due in court on those charges Wednesday.
Peck is already on probation for sexually assaulting another girlfriend in 2001 and was under a restraining order to stay away from that woman, too.
One week ago, the Wilmington Star-News reported that Peck had failed to disclose his convictions on his application to the university, and the story also noted the new charges against him. Peck said he was expelled after the Star-News contacted the university about his record, the newspaper reported.
The article stemmed from the May 5 slaying of Jessica Lee Faulkner, 19, of Cary, in her dorm. Curtis Dixon, 21, a fellow student, has been arrested on charges of raping and murdering her. Last month the Star-News reported that Dixon had failed to tell the university about a misdemeanor larceny conviction.
The paper began looking into Peck after hearing from Holly Naujoks of Solon, Ohio, who was prompted by Faulkner's death and by her daughter's problems with Peck to call the paper, an editor said.
Tim Griggs, managing editor of the Star-News, said Saturday that Naujoks' mother had told the newspaper about her daughter's situation to draw attention to the university's lack of domestic violence counseling.
Subsequently, the woman expressed concern about printing her daughter's and Peck's names, he said. Griggs said the paper printed the names to add credibility to the story.
"We felt it was important to show a real-world case," Griggs said. "It was important to show this kind of thing does happen -- that someone could lie to get into school. Not to place blame on the university; rather, what can be done?"
Griggs said the timing of Naujoks' slaying left him "nauseous" and that he agonized for her family. But he said that the forthcoming court hearing on the restraining order also could have been a factor, if Peck turns out to be the killer.
"Did we play a part in this?" Griggs said. "I hope not. I don't think so. It's hard to tell what sets a person off."
Holly Naujoks could not be reached for comment Saturday. Relatives said she and her husband were traveling to North Carolina.
Suspect may be armed
W.T. Parker, chief deputy of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department, said the county's 911 center received a call reporting a shooting at NorthChase Apartments about 9:45 p.m. Friday. Deputies found Naujoks lying on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Peck is thought to be driving a dark green 2000 Toyota 4Runner with North Carolina license tag SRR-8120. He is 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighs 180 pounds and has blond hair and hazel eyes.
At a brief news conference Saturday evening, Parker held up a Chinese-made SKS assault rifle and said Peck may be carrying a similar firearm.
"Do not approach him or attempt to make contact with him," Parker said. "Call 911."
UNCW Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo said the killing of freshman Faulkner on the last day of final exams this spring prompted the university to review its procedures to protect students.
"This recent tragedy further compels our commitment and resolve to explore what additional measures, if any, the university can take to ensure the safety of our university community," she said in a prepared statement. "We express our deepest sympathy to the Naujoks family and friends."
Naujoks was a transfer student who was not expected to return to school, UNCW officials said. She was a junior pre-education major.
A great-aunt, Helen Naujoks of Cleveland, Ohio, said the young woman had moved to Wilmington to attend college after graduating from high school in Solon, a suburb of Cleveland. "She was a real sweetheart, just an absolute little doll," she said.
Peck was a junior and a pre-communication studies major, but university officials said he was suspended effective May 27.
Naujoks lived in an apartment complex north of Wilmington near the city's airport. Her porch spilled over with plants and flowers. Neighbors said she was a caring woman with a green thumb.
"That's all she ever did, is take care of her plants," said Sandra Apple, a neighbor. "She took care of another neighbor's dog, too. She was a really sweet person."
Apple got into her wheelchair Friday night to investigate the noise outside.
"I heard the shots," she said. "By the time I got in my chair and got outside, it was all over."
Peck lives in a one-story Wilmington house on a circular drive. On Saturday, the blinds were closed over the front windows, and a pair of old boots sat on the porch. Birds fluttered around multiple bird feeders.
His neighbor, Joyce Barefoot, described Peck as likable and attentive to his yard.
"He and his girlfriend were real close," she said. "They had a little fish pond and they planted some flowers. Then one day she was gone."
Barefoot said she saw Peck a few hours before Friday night's slaying.
"My daughter and I were pushing the baby around the circle," she said. "It must have been about 7:30 when we saw him leave. He waved, and my daughter waved back. I didn't wave."
Staff writer Craig Jarvis can be reached at 829-4576 or cjarvis@newsobserver.com.
News researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.; Correspondent Josh Shaffer reported from Wilmington.
© Copyright 2004, The News & Observer Publishing Company,
a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company

Article published May 30, 2004
UNCW fails to uncover criminal pasts
Another student accepted to UNCW after withholding the truth about his criminal record on an admission application is accused of crimes against a female student, but the university has no plans to review its admissions policies.
John B. Peck, 27, acknowledged Thursday that he didn't cite felony and misdemeanor convictions on his University of North Carolina at Wilmington application. He now faces charges of misdemeanor stalking and making harassing phone calls to UNCW student Christen Naujoks, his 22-year-old ex-girlfriend. She recently took out a restraining order against him.
Mr. Peck said school officials contacted him last week and asked whether he lied on his application. The school's inquiry came after a Star-News reporter contacted the university about his record.
"I said, 'Yeah, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten in,'»" he said.
Mr. Peck, who started at UNCW in August 2002 and was planning to attend classes this summer and fall, said he has been expelled because of the deception.
The situation raises further questions about whether admissions policies at UNCW and elsewhere are lax in identifying or rejecting convicted criminals and whether that compromises students' safety.
The issue came to light last week, when it was learned that Curtis Dixon – the 21-year-old student charged in the murder of 18-year-old Jessica Faulkner – lied about his criminal record on his UNCW application. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor larceny in 2000 but didn't disclose that on the application.
Mr. Dixon and Ms. Faulkner lived on the same floor of Cornerstone Hall.
UNCW officials said late last week they have no plans to consider modifications to the school's admissions policy regarding criminal backgrounds. They said it's similar to others across the country and that the self-reporting system has worked in the past.
Applications to UNCW ask prospective students whether they've been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic violation and whether they've "entered a plea of guilty, a plea of no contest, a plea of nolo contendere, or an Alford to a criminal charge or otherwise accepted responsibility for the commission of a crime."
The form relies solely on the word of the prospective student, with no way to ensure truthfulness. By signing the statement, an applicant certifies the information is complete and accurate, school officials said.
"This is standard practice in universities all across the country," UNCW spokeswoman Mimi Cunningham said. "We rely on the honor of our students."
But that didn't work in at least two cases, and there could be others. Mr. Peck said he knows a couple of other people who lied about their pasts to get into UNCW; they still attend school there. He declined to name them.
If a prospective student checks the box on the application indicating a criminal record and if the applicant is otherwise admissible to the university, the application would be forwarded to the dean of students. The dean would review the situation, interview the applicant and make a decision about acceptance, according to university policy.
Ms. Cunningham said UNCW received about 15,000 applications for the 2004-05 school year, and fewer than 1 percent – about 125 applicants – indicated they had criminal records. She said the bulk of the offenses were "very minor." At least two applicants were denied admission after an interview with the dean of students, she said, declining to say how many applicants were interviewed by the dean.
School officials said backgrounds checks on all applicants would be unreasonable.
A quick Internet search of applications for several colleges revealed that some don't ask about criminal backgrounds at all, and others ask less specific questions than UNCW.
An online freshman application for Ohio State University, for example, includes only the question, "Have you ever been charged with or convicted of a felony?" and a box to explain it.
In Mr. Peck's case, it will never be known whether his prior convictions would have kept him out of the university had he disclosed them.
Mr. Peck pleaded guilty in November 2001 to a misdemeanor count of assault on a female and two felony counts of crimes against nature, a sex offense. He was originally charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sex offense after an incident with a girlfriend who claimed he raped her and threatened her with a handgun, according to court documents. Mr. Peck pleaded guilty to the less serious charges.
He is in the final year of a three-year supervised probation term, spent about 30 days in jail and is attending anger-management classes, according to court records.
His next court appearance for the pending charges is scheduled for June 9.
In a criminal complaint, Ms. Naujoks, who declined to be interviewed for this story, said she broke up with Mr. Peck and he followed her around school on three occasions attempting to talk to her and not allowing her to get into her car.
In a complaint seeking a protective order, Ms. Naujoks also claimed Mr. Peck left 17 obscene messages on her answering machine March 5.
Mr. Peck said he agreed to comply with the order and that he wants to put the matter behind him.
"It's like I've been hit with a ton of bricks," he said, adding that he has never physically harmed Ms. Naujoks.
Last week, Ms. Cunningham cited federal law when declining to say whether Mr. Peck withheld the truth about his criminal record on his admissions application or whether he disclosed it and was accepted anyway. Mr. Peck subsequently acknowledged that he didn't include his record on the application.
Earlier last week, school officials said Mr. Dixon, "did not cite any irregularities" in his application, thus confirming he lied on his application.
"We believe there was a compelling reason to let the public know that there were no irregularities in Curtis Dixon's application," Ms. Cunningham said in explaining why the school released that information about Mr. Dixon but not Mr. Peck.
Mr. Dixon could face the death penalty and remains in jail without bond, charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and first-degree kidnapping in connection with Ms. Faulkner's murder. UNCW officials have declined to release his status with the university.
Patrick Gannon: 343-2328
Patrick.gannon@starnewsonline.com

Article published May 26, 2004
Murder suspect lied applying to UNCW
The UNCW freshman charged with murdering a fellow student lied about his criminal and academic record in his admissions application to the university.
But whether 21-year-old Curtis Dixon would have been accepted to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington regardless of his past likely will never be known.
Mr. Dixon pleaded guilty to misdemeanor larceny in Mecklenburg County in 2000. Yet his application to the university for the 2003-04 school year "did not cite any irregularities" pertaining to criminal background, according to a written statement from school officials in response to a series of Star-News questions about the May 5 murder.
Mr. Dixon was indicted earlier this month on counts of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree kidnapping in connection with the death of 18-year-old fellow student Jessica Lee Faulkner. Her body was found beaten and strangled in Mr. Dixon's room in UNCW's Cornerstone Hall.
He remains in New Hanover County jail without bond and is scheduled to appear in court July 14 for a hearing that likely will show whether the state will seek the death penalty.
Kevin Peters, one of Mr. Dixon's attorneys from the state Capital Defenders Office, declined to comment for this article.
The 2004 admissions application for UNCW asks prospective students whether they've been convicted of a crime other than a minor traffic violation and whether they've "entered a plea of guilty, a plea of no contest, a plea of nolo contendere, or an Alford plea to a criminal charge or otherwise accepted responsibility of the commission of a crime?"
"Curtis Dixon's application did not cite any irregularities," the UNCW statement said.
When a student signs the application, he or she certifies that the information is complete and correct, the statement said.
Had Mr. Dixon provided his criminal history, and if he was admissible to the university otherwise, his application would have been forwarded to the dean of students. The dean would have reviewed the situation, interviewed him and made a decision on whether to accept him, according to UNCW policy.
Because the university was not aware of his criminal history, that never happened in Mr. Dixon's case.
Dean of Students Terry Curran is on vacation until late next week and was not available for comment Tuesday about the review process, university spokeswoman Mimi Cunningham said.
Ms. Cunningham couldn't say Tuesday whether any student has been denied enrollment based on a dean's review.
Mr. Dixon also apparently withheld information about previous enrollments at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. The most recent academic record UNCW has for Mr. Dixon is that he graduated from home schooling in 2001, Ms. Cunningham said. A warning on the UNCW admissions application states, "Failure to list all colleges and universities previously attended may result in loss of credit or dismissal from UNCW."
Mr. Dixon was enrolled at UNC-Charlotte without a declared major in the fall 2000 term, the spring 2001 term and the spring and fall terms of 2002, university officials said. In both 2002 terms, Mr. Dixon left school early for reasons that couldn't be learned. Privacy laws prevent school officials from releasing such information to the media.
From September 2001 to December 2001, Mr. Dixon attended the N.C. School for the Arts in Winston-Salem as a drama major, school officials said.
Ms. Cunningham said based on the academic information the school received from Mr. Dixon, he met the school's academic standards for admission. The student selection process also takes into account an applicant's race – Mr. Dixon is black – as well as high school grades, SAT scores, special talents or strengths and other factors.
When asked whether the school plans to modify its admissions process to make it more difficult for applicants with criminal backgrounds to get in, Ms. Cunningham said, "There's no discussion at this point to do that."
UNCW officials declined to release Mr. Dixon's application, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, which provides for the protection of certain student records.
Citing the same federal law, Ms. Cunningham also declined to say Tuesday whether the university is seeking disciplinary action against Mr. Dixon because of the false application or the more serious charges against him. She said she couldn't say whether he had been suspended or expelled from the university.
Patrick Gannon: 343-2328
patrick.gannon@starnewsonline.com

Wilmington Bail Bondsman Charged With False Imprisonment And Assault

CAROLINA BEACH, NC---Carolina Beach Interim Police Chief William Still has issued the following statement regarding the arrest of local bondsman Larry Powell today in Carolina Beach:
On 16 April 2004 Carolina Beach Police arrested Mr. Larry A. Powell of Powell Bail Bonds of Wilmington for False Imprisonment and Simple Assault.
A fifteen-year-old male Ashley High School student reported to authorities he had been stopped detained and handcuffed for a brief period of time while waiting for his school bus on 16 April.
According to the juvenile Mr. Powell pulled up in front of him in a white Avalanche and asked what his name was.
The juvenile responded with his name and Mr. Powell asked "Are you lying to me?" The juvenile responded he was not lying. Mr. Powell exited the vehicle and placed the juvenile against the vehicle where he was then handcuffed.
Mr. Powell then asked for school identification to which the juvenile responded he did not have with him. Mr. Powell instructed the juvenile to come with him and the juvenile asked if could go to his house first.
Mr. Powell agreed, entered his vehicle and drove alongside the handcuffed juvenile as he walked handcuffed across the street.
During this walk Mr. Powell stopped and removed the handcuffs and told the juvenile to go and catch his bus. After the juvenile alerted his mother, Carolina Beach Police initiated an investigation into the matter. Mr. Powell was interviewed at the CBPD where he admitted engaging in conversation with the juvenile while looking for a adult absconder.
Mr. Powell denied handcuffing and detaining the juvenile. A separate witness to the incident was identified and confirmed the juvenile had been handcuffed and detained.
The juvenile related that at the time Mr. Powell confronted him he was under the impression Mr. Powell was a police officer as Mr. Powell was wearing a badge and gun.
Mr. Powell was released after posting a $500 secured bond. His court date is scheduled for May 18th in District Court Room #200 Wilmington.

Last updated: April 15. 2004 12:00AM
SI CANTWELL | COMMON SENSE

Victim's tales personalize problem of child abuse
Caesar Gonzales of Atlanta is a motorcycle racer. He might be racing away from childhood.
Speaking at a child abuse forum Tuesday at Wilmington City Hall, he asked how many in the roomful of people knew what it was like, "to come home to a minefield day and night, wondering, 'What will I be beaten for today?' "
He asked if we know what starvation is like, a burning throat and aching belly, a belly so empty that when you drink water, it burns, and when you finally get something to eat, it burns.
A lot of information was exchanged at the forum, such as the fact that shaken-baby syndrome rose fivefold after Hurricane Floyd in the affected counties of North Carolina. That's a lot of brain injuries.
But the really attention-grabbing stories were told by the people who lived through abuse.
Patsy Everett of Moore County recalled being startled awake by her mother's screams when she was 5.
She hid under the bed for hours, listening to crashing dishes and the sound of her mother's body being thrown to the floor.
Her mother committed suicide at age 46, and an older brother did so at 41. Another brother wrestled with alcohol dependency.
She dedicated herself to stopping the abuse.
So did Karin Cox, executive director of The Parenting Place of the Exchange Clubs. Her organization worked with 50 families last year, teaching parenting skills.
She said there are easily 500 families in the area who need such help.
Ms. Cox, moderator of Tuesday's forum, talked about growing up in a house with eight siblings and cousins after her uncle murdered her aunt, then killed himself.
Her mother was already a tired and stressed-out single mom before the cousins moved in. Ms. Cox grew up amid beatings, yelling, shaming, belittling and incest in "a very violent home."
That leaves scars. Ms. Cox said there have been eight suicide attempts in her family. Family members have spent time in a foster home, a boys home, a domestic violence shelter, a mental hospital and in jail.
Child abuse rips away the foundations of what makes us human, she told me later.
"What a home like that teaches you is that love hurts. And the people you love the most and need the most are going to hurt you," she said.
Like Ms. Everett, Ms. Cox has dedicated herself to battling the problem.
"You either let it destroy you or you work to seek a solution," she said.
The forum was part of local observances of Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Neglect is a forum of abuse. Dr. Desmond Runyon of the Department of Social Medicine and the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said 19 of every 1,000 families in the Carolinas were unable to provide food for their children at least once in the previous month.
Carmen Hooker Odom, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, talked about how the state is working to help abused and neglected children.
Structured intake procedures ask the same questions to everyone reporting child abuse, so social workers in counties urban and rural use the same data to assess the risk to the child in the home. Structured decision-making encourages consistent actions on placement and safety.
Conversely, family-centered practices and multiple response systems allow flexibility in helping the entire family. When possible, it's better to work with parents to create a safe home than to take the children away.
Ms. Cox closed the forum by giving some advice: If your neighbor has a problem, offer to help. Maybe the mother needs a break. Maybe the child needs a mentor.
And whenever you see a child being abused or neglected, don't divert your gaze.
Visit the online "Common Sense" forum via www.starnewsonline.com/cantwell. Contact Si Cantwell at 343-2364 or si.cantwell@starnewsonline.com

Article published Apr 15, 2004
Lawyer: Boggess’ trial unfair
Convicted killer was cheated, Supreme Court told in appeal
RALEIGH - Convicted killer Todd Charles Boggess deserves a new trial because the judge made illegal and unconstitutional decisions that cheated Mr. Boggess out of a fair trial the first time, his appeals appellate lawyer said.
Mr. Boggess was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and sentenced to die for the fatal beating of Wilmington honor student Danny Pence. The then-21-year-old homeless drifter also was convicted of kidnapping Mr. Pence from Wrightsville Beach and stealing his Ford Mustang.
Mr. Boggess did not testify in his own defense. He said in three tape-recorded confessions that he was sorry for the killing and deserved to die.
Staples Hughes, a state-provided appellate lawyer, argued before the state Supreme Court on Tuesday that Mr. Boggess should get a new trial because of errors made by Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson.
Even after court officials learned that Mr. Pence’s mother planned to stay in Durham with a friend of one of the jurors, Judge Hudson denied defense lawyers a chance to dismiss that juror from the case, Mr. Hughes said. Mr. Pence’s mother ultimately made other lodging arrangements.
Mr. Boggess was the state’s first murderer sentenced under a law that mandates life imprisonment without parole for first-degree killers who avoid the death penalty. Before, they were eligible for parole after 20 years. But when the jurors asked for a definition of life without parole, Judge Hudson erred in his instructions to them, Mr. Hughes argued.
He quoted Judge Hudson as telling jurors they should not consider what "another arm of the government might or might not do in the future." This erroneously led jurors to conclude that "another arm of the government" might parole Mr. Boggess, Mr. Hughes said.
Judge Hudson should have instructed the jury that life without parole means "until the death of the defendant," Mr. Hughes added.
"It is absolutely clear ... that had this trial judge given a correct, lawful and constitutional instruction, Todd Boggess would have received a sentence of life without parole," Mr. Hughes said.
Arguing for the state, Deputy Attorney General Robert Montgomery was sidetracked by questions from several Supreme Court justices, many involving the juror whose friend initially had planned to provide lodging for Mr. Pence’s mother. Mr. Montgomery said there was "no good reason" for Judge Hudson to reopen that issue after defense lawyers had already approved the juror.
Mr. Montgomery did not have time to address all of Mr. Hughes’ arguments in the 30 minutes allotted to him.

Last updated: April 14. 2004 12:13AM
POLICE BLOTTER
Man falls asleep at scene of crime
An alleged robber was caught after falling asleep at the crime scene.
William Baker, 23, was charged with second-degree burglary and larceny and was in the New Hanover County jail Tuesday night in lieu of a $20,000 bond.
According to a Wilmington Police report, officials received a call about 8 a.m. Monday that a window had been broken into at a home in the 300 block of North 26th Street. When a relative of the homeowner and police arrived at the home and walked in, Mr. Baker was discovered asleep on the couch. His knapsack, full of jewelry and other alleged stolen items from the house, was lying beside the couch.

Article published Apr 6, 2004
Young drinkers cited by ALE during festival
The queen and her court weren't the only ones making the rounds at the 57th annual N.C. Azalea Festival.
To the chagrin of nearly 300 people, agents with the N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement Division used the high-profile event to reinforce their intentions to enforce the state's drug, alcohol and – perhaps a little surprisingly – trademark laws.
Flooding the event with 23 agents, about 20 percent of all the state's ALE force, wasn't meant to ruin anyone's celebration, officials said.
"We just want to remind people that they can have a good time and still follow the law," said Ted Carlton, supervisor for the local ALE division. "And it shows a presence and, we think, makes a difference when we work one area like this."
In short, officials saw the Azalea Festival as a chance to make the biggest splash in a short space of time at an event that could be considered the unofficial kickoff of the region's busy tourism season.
The annual festival attracts an estimated 300,000 visitors and pumps roughly $5 million into the local economy.
But it also represents a prime opportunity for individuals – and establishments – to flout the state's liquor laws.
Mr. Carlton said a growing front in the ALE's ongoing campaign against underage drinking involves house parties.
"They don't think they'll run into the ALE, or the police for that matter, at a house," he said.
Of the agency's 346 charges filed during the three-day sting – which included a few operations in Pender, Brunswick and Onslow counties – 178 involved underage drinking and 32 were for possession of fake identification documents.
"Fake IDs are things that increase every year," Mr. Carlton said, noting that the IDs also get more sophisticated as computer equipment gets cheaper and increasingly high tech.
Sixteen downtown establishments were also cited for serving underage customers, Mr. Carlton said, adding that the list of bars and restaurants caught would be available later this week.
Perhaps surprising to some, the ALE also cited several vendors for selling counterfeit merchandise.
Mr. Carlton said agents issued 11 citations for selling fake CDs, DVDs, team clothing and other unauthorized trademark items.
"We are looking out for it now more than ever because it's somewhat questionable about where the money goes," he said, adding that there is concern it could go to fund terrorist organizations.
Although largely unproven when it comes to merchandise, the federal government has often said that the illegal domestic drug trade supports terror groups in Asia and South America.
Among those caught was a roadside vendor in Onslow County selling Louis Vuitton purses.
"You don't buy an $800 purse and pay $75 for it," Mr. Carlton said with a chuckle. "It's just common sense."
Gareth McGrath: 343-2384
gareth.mcgrath@starnewsonline.com

Article published Mar 19, 2004
Bond cut severely for suspected drug dealer
A suspected area drug dealer captured in one of New Hanover County’s biggest cocaine busts this year had his bond cut from $5 million to $300,000 Thursday over the objection of sheriff’s department officials.
Quincy Levon Sidbury, 25, who was hit with 23 drug-related charges from the bust earlier this month, will be under house arrest if he makes bail, a judge decided during a hearing in New Hanover County District Court.
Mr. Sidbury faces a possible sentence of 20 years to life. He was still in the New Hanover County jail Thursday night.
"Facing 20 years to life, I don’t think he is going to stay around," said Capt. Gene Pulley with the New Hanover County Sheriff Office’s Vice and Narcotics Unit.
After the hearing, Judge James Faison III said he felt that with the house arrest, the $300,000 bond was "sufficient."
Mr. Sidbury, of the 3000 block of Lauren Place Drive, was arrested March 9 after sheriff’s deputies found more than 4 pounds of cocaine during a search of his home.
Sheriff’s deputies also learned during the search that a shipment of cocaine was expected from a Pender County supplier that night. In front of the Wilmington Wal-Mart Supercenter – where the sale was scheduled – officials confiscated drugs and also arrested Mr. Sidbury’s alleged supplier, Sylvester Murray III.
Mr. Murray, 25, of Burgaw is being held in the New Hanover County jail in lieu of a $2 million
Sheriff Sid Causey said from the two searches his department netted about 8 pounds of cocaine and 2 pounds of marijuana, which has a street value of $350,000 to $600,000.
He said officials were able to persuade Judge Rebecca Blackmore to set a $5 million bond for Mr. Sidbury after arguing the defendant had someone else’s license in his possession and had been previously charged with felony eluding law enforcement officers.

Article published Mar 31, 2004
Two more deputies fired from county jail
Two New Hanover County sheriff's deputies have been fired this month from their jobs at the county jail, Sheriff Sid Causey said Tuesday.
Citing confidentiality rules, Sheriff Causey would not say why Sgt. Dean M. Daniels and Deputy Joseph M. Guarascio were dismissed.
Mr. Guarascio, 39, was hired in October as a jailer and let go March 5. He remains vice president of Lower Cape Fear Lodge 58 of the Fraternal Order of Police. Mr. Daniels, 35, a shift supervisor, was fired Monday, Sheriff Causey said.
"Both of them are personnel matters. I can't talk about them. I can tell you that they no longer work there," Sheriff Causey said.
Neither man was available for comment Tuesday. A check of records at the New Hanover County courthouse showed no criminal charges filed in connection with the dismissals.
Mr. Guarascio served about two years as a crime prevention specialist with the Wilmington Housing Authority, leaving the position in June 2003 when federal funding ran out, a WHA official said Tuesday. He previously worked with the New Hanover Regional Medical Center police and was a New York City police officer for eight years.
Mr. Daniels had previously worked for the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office and was rehired in August 2001, Sheriff Causey said.
The dismissals continue a recent turbulent trend at several local county jails. In late December, New Hanover County jail booking Deputy Norman Gattison III was fired and charged with second-degree rape after allegedly forcing a female inmate to have sex. Mr. Gattison's next court date is in June.
Four other deputies working in the Brunswick and Duplin county jails have been charged in recent months with crimes stemming from allegations of illicit sex with inmates.
There are 302 employees of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office. The misconduct of a few deputies does not reflect the professionalism of the vast majority, Sheriff Causey said.
"You just deal with things and move on and try to make improvements. We think we have one of the best departments in the state. That is not to say we don't have any problems."
Both Mr. Daniels and Mr. Guarascio, who was still on probationary status with the sheriff's office when he was fired, have the option of appealing their firings before an internal review board and a separate a citizen's review board, Sheriff Causey said.
Deputy K.W. Bradley, president of FOP Lodge 58, said members can obtain legal representation through the local organization, which numbers law enforcement officials from many number of agencies among its ranks.
"Every member has legal representation available to him. (Mr. Guarascio) has yet to seek that through the lodge," Deputy Bradley said Tuesday.
Like all FOP officers, Mr. Guarascio's term of office is one year, Deputy Bradley said.
Ken Little: 343-2389
ken.little@starnewsonline.com

Article published Mar 10, 2004
Officer accused of sexual misconduct
Bribery charges also alleged in incident involving WPD officer
A Wilmington Police officer was in the New Hanover County jail Tuesday after a 35-year-old woman in his custody accused him of having sexual relations with her.
David Dean Allen, an officer with the department for three years, was also charged with bribery in the incident and was in jail in lieu of $60,000 bail.
His first court appearance is today.
He was placed on administrative leave with pay, pending an investigation, interim Police Chief Bruce Hickman said.
"I take all complaints about officer misconduct seriously and will not tolerate such behavior," Chief Hickman said.
The chief would not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the alleged incident. But he said he was notified by the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office on Monday that a woman in jail there said the two had sex while she was in his custody.
According to police reports, a sex act was performed between the two at the Motel 6 on Market Street in December of last year. And during a later incident between Dec. 28 and Jan. 6 at the El-Berta Motor Inn on Market Street, he is accused of giving her money in exchange for sexual activity.
Chief Hickman said Officer Allen was placed on administrative leave Monday following the allegations and was charged Tuesday after further investigation by the Professional Standards Division.
Officer Allen is the second law enforcement officer to be charged with sexual activity by a custodial official this year in New Hanover County. Norman Gattison was a booking deputy and sergeant at the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department in January when he was charged with sexual activity by a custodian as well as second-degree rape.
The district attorney's office maintained he forced a 36-year-old victim to have sex on Dec. 28 in the law enforcement center.
Chief Hickman said the arrests were not a reflection on law enforcement.
"We have a lot of good officers who do a lot of good things," Chief Hickman said.
Millard K. Ives: 343-2075
millard.ives@starnewsonline.com

OUR VOICE, NO ONE IS SAFE, WEEK OF MARCH 4-MARCH 10, 2004
The Wilmington Journal
Originally posted 3/5/2004
By now you know about THE memo.
Interim WPD Police Chief Tandy Carter, before he left for the safe confines of Shelby to become the full-time chief of police there, wrote a confidential, internal memo to the city manager saying in effect “This place is a basket case, so you would be doing the next chief a favor by cleaning it up.”
That’s not a direct quote, but you get the picture.
Bottom line is the Carter memo obviously painted an accurate and disturbing picture of a police department so rife with backbiting, unprofessionalism and ineffectiveness, that it’s no wonder their badges don’t drop off their uniforms for fear of being seen in public with them.
But the point of this editorial is not about the memo.
The memo speaks for itself.
The greater concern is that the memo, which was, after all, a justifiably confidential, internal communication between two high-ranking city officials, was leaked to the press for the express purpose of dishonoring Chief Carter.
In short, whoever it was who made this public could care less about fixing the problems at the WPD.
And that should scare all of us.
Law enforcement agencies, as a matter of practice, maintain files of information on thousands of citizens, and not necessarily just the ones who’ve committed crimes.
Your name, address, social security number, credit history, where you work, where and when you went to school, driver’s license number and record, picture and/or mugshot (there is a difference)…and the list goes on, can be all in the domain of your friendly neighborhood police department, and you would never know it.
And then it happens.
One day you decide to take part in a non-violent, lawful public demonstration, and the police, using public safety an excuse, decide to either video or photograph everyone there, and match it up with the info they already have on file.
Who’s to say that sometime that week, that month or years later, someone in the police or sheriff’s department, looking either to even a score or make trouble, couldn’t access that information allegedly tucked “safely” away in law enforcement files.
Given our recent “memogate,” does anyone now doubt that this could happen?
Especially given the decrepit nature of the WPD, as described by former Chief Carter.
That should frighten all of us. As much concern as there is about the Patriots Act, and the power of surveillance the federal government now has to fight terrorism that many feel can be also used to target innocent Americans, we should be concerned that someone in our local law enforcement is capable of violating a confidential document for their own purposes.
The continuous police harassment of City Councilwoman Katherine Moore is evidence enough of what some members of the WPD are capable of.
“Memogate” just confirms it.
So how do we fix this?
First of all, if it isn’t already, leaking confidential city documents should be criminalized by the City Council.
That may sound weird coming from the media, which counts on leakers and missileblowers to get a real, documented idea of exactly what government is up to.
The potential for someone’s personal information to be “sold” to either a newspaper or TV station by a corrupt member of law enforcement is very real.
Secondly, the WPD needs a strong, honest, experienced, and devoted new police chief to come in, and change the rancid culture there. Only then can there be any hope of being served by a police department that is truly here to serve.
And not destroy.

Article published Mar 3, 2004
Berry's mother offers testimony
Recalls son as teen troubled by various mental problems
Kyle Berry was taken to at least 17 doctors during his teenage years and placed in a succession of schools, his mother said Tuesday.
Along the way, Mr. Berry was diagnosed as being bipolar, having attention deficit disorder and was prescribed a variety of powerful drugs that included lithium, Paxil and Dexedrine, Nancy Berry testified during her son’s resentencing hearing in New Hanover Superior Court.
Through testimony Tuesday, defense lawyers sought to put a human face on the troubled life of Mr. Berry, who was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder in the November 1998 beating and stabbing death of 16-year-old Theresa Fetter.
A jury will decide this week if Mr. Berry will be sentenced for the second time to die or spend life in prison without parole.
The hearing was prompted by an appeal involving sentencing instructions during the 2001 trial.
Miss Fetter’s stabbed and beaten body was found behind a day care center in a wooded area east of College Road at South 17th Street.
Prosecution testimony shows three men beat Miss Fetter to death with metal pipes while Mr. Berry stabbed her repeatedly in the head and hands before leaving the teenager’s body under a pile of pine straw.
The three men – Bobby Autry, Jon Malonee and Josh Whitney, are all serving prison terms ranging from 16 to 32 years for their part in the killing.
Much of the same evidence from the first trial has been presented by the prosecution and defense during three days of testimony. During the 2001 trial, defense lawyers introduced evidence that Mr. Berry was mentally ill, retarded, suffered from a head injury and was abused as a child.
Mr. Berry’s behavioral and learning problems became more pronounced as he got older, prompting the visits to various doctors and clinics, Mrs. Berry said.
"We thought each one was going to make him better," she said.
Assistant District Attorney Todd Fennell sought to bring out another side of Mr. Berry during cross-examination. In contentious exchanges with the prosecutor, Mrs. Berry said her son was never violent in her presence.
"He was not aggressive to me. He would say things, but he never hit me or anything," she said.
Mrs. Berry said that a head injury suffered by her son in a 1993 car crash appeared to affect his behavior.
Mr. Berry rarely made eye contact with his mother during her testimony. The victim’s parents, Carl and Margaret Fetter, listened with thinly veiled contempt.
Defense testimony continues today.

Monday, March 1, 2004 5:05PM EST
N.C. law enforcement seize drug-related items from stores

By GARY D. ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The federal government is going on the offensive against drug paraphernalia, seizing pipes, clips and other items from a half-dozen stores in eastern North Carolina.
Federal prosecutors said Monday the searches and seizures are the first in a new campaign designed to make it harder to find materials that could entice teenagers to begin smoking marijuana.
"The distribution of drug paraphernalia is a federal felony," U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney said at a news conference in Raleigh. "If we can cut down on the demand for drugs, it will make our jobs easier."
Federal, state and local agents participate in last Thursday's searches of four Wake County and two Wilmington businesses as part of "Operation Pipecleaner." They recovered decorative and brightly colored bongs, as well as "roach" clips and miniature spoons.
These kinds of items are defined in federal law as drug paraphernalia, and someone selling or trying to sell them can receive up to three years in prison, including fines and forfeiting the cited goods.
No charges have been filed against the owners or employees at the six stores, but criminal counts are possible. The investigation and Operation Pipecleaner are continuing, Whitney said.
Federal and local officials defended their campaign against retailers, who often have been allowed to operate despite the paraphernalia.
After years of continuing efforts to convict drug suppliers, Whitney said Washington asked that local U.S. attorney come up with ways to reduce the demand for drugs. The middle and western districts of North Carolina are focusing on methamphetamines, he said.
Marijuana is often labeled as a "gateway" drug because people who smoke pot are many times more likely to use heavier drugs such as heroin and cocaine, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
In the past, much of the marijuana smoked in North Carolina was grown in-state. Now, more of the drug is coming aboard tractor-trailers from Mexico and Central America and contains higher amounts of marijuana's active chemical, THC.
"The marijuana of 2004 is not your parents' marijuana, if they experimented with it," Whitney said.
Keeping paraphernalia further away from high school or college students - some of the stores raided were next to North Carolina State University and UNC-Wilmington - should help discourage experimentation, the coordinator of Operation Pipecleaner said.
"The message is, 'The gateway is closed,'" Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Newby said. "No more tickets will be sold."
In February 2003, federal authorities charged 55 people with trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia in an investigation they said targeted the nation's biggest Internet distributors of bongs, crack pipes and other drug abuse gear. At the time, White House drug czar John Walters said, "This is a devastating blow to the drug paraphernalia business."
While Newby declined to discuss the specific stores in North Carolina that were searched, he said many outlets sell drug paraphernalia alongside skateboards, posters and clothing linked with the youth culture.
Agents seized items at Buddha's Belly stores in Raleigh and Wilmington; Snap Dragons and the Rock 'n' Roll Outlet in Raleigh; Rock 'n' Roll Village in Clayton; and Expressions in Wilmington.
Drew Skidmore, the co-owner of Expressions, said the store talked to local law enforcement to ensure that their sales inventory was legal in Wilmington. He was surprised by the federal search.
"If they didn't want to us sell the stuff, they could have just sent us a letter," Skidmore said. The items Expressions sells are intended solely for tobacco or legal herbs, he said, and the store also sells incense, T-shirts and sex items.
Skidmore questioned the point of singling out the six stores. "You can smoke illegal drugs out of any pipe in the world," he said. "You can smoke out of a Coke can or an apple."
Local police can charge paraphernalia vendors in state court, but there is no specific count against paraphernalia sales and any punishment often is a misdemeanor.
A person who identified himself as the manager at Buddha's Belly in Raleigh said agents removed items from about 20 percent of his store but declined further comment. Attempts to reach the other businesses were not successful.

Last updated: March 01. 2004 12:00AM
POLICE BLOTTER
Parked car hit during shootout
A Wilmington firefighter’s Jeep reportedly got caught in the middle of a shootout Saturday, receiving about $1,000 in damage in the exchange of gunfire. No one was known to be injured.
According to a police report, David Kidd and several others in the fire station at 801 Market St. heard a series of gunshots from the north side of the station around 10 a.m. Saturday.
When they went out, they found one of the shots had hit Mr. Kidd’s vehicle, entering through the side of its soft top, grazing the roll bar and exiting through the windshield, the report says. A shot also hit the fire station wall, causing about $100 in damage, the report says.
A witness told police that a gun battle had apparently erupted between men in a white van and another man on foot, who fled west on Princess Street. Police found casings from 9 mm and a .45 guns.
The incident is under investigation.

<rSam Scott Former interim chief blasts city police
Several days before he left, Wilmington's former interim police chief submitted a confidential and potentially explosive memo about the Wilmington Police Department to the city manager.
In the 11/2-page memo, former interim Police Chief Tandy Carter described the department as coming apart at the seams, questioned the motives of one of its top officers and said special-interest groups would ultimately protect members of the command staff who are loyal to the groups' causes. If a new chief tries to make reforms, he will only last two to three years, Chief Carter predicted in the note.
Chief Carter did not return a message left early Friday evening at the Shelby Police Department, where he has been chief for about two weeks.
Among those Chief Carter mentioned in the memo is Capt. Sharon Pulley. The note says "she will put on a good face for a while," and at the same time, "she will work to undermine" interim Police Chief Bruce Hickman.
Some officers wanted Chief Hickman to appoint Capt. Pulley as deputy police chief. But Chief Carter advised against it in the memo. Chief Hickman "would do better not naming a deputy until the chief announcement is made," the note says.
Chief Carter said he had concerns about Capt. Pulley as deputy because her husband, Capt. Gene Pulley, works in the drug unit of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Sid Causey "is doing everything he can to try to undermine our efforts to make himself look good," the note says.
Sheriff Causey did not return messages left at the Sheriff's Department or at his home Friday evening.
The note says Capt. Pulley "is in collusion with the special interest groups." It said the groups, which were not identified, are baby-sitting and courting her. "The baby-sitting comes more from her than by the special interest groups until their agenda is sold to the majority of the council." The note indicates that the special interest agenda is the preservation of civil service, better pay and the ability of officers to discipline themselves.
Capt. Pulley said she and her husband were concerned about the contents of the note and had consulted a lawyer Friday. She said she thought it best not to comment.
Chief Carter said in the memo it is imperative that the next permanent chief "bring competent people with him." He wrote that "there is a shortage of available talent in the department" and that professional and personal resentment exists in the ranks from sergeant to captain.
"If the city is looking for a reform chief, he/she will only survive for a short period (2-3 years). He/she will consistently be at odds" with rank and file officers over such issues as civil service and disciplinary actions.
The note also said that officers, special interest groups and Capt. Pulley would target Capt. Randy Pait. He recommended Capt. Pait "be moved to professional standards division for his own protection." It said an organizational assessment conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum would focus on Capt. Pait as "the department problem supervisor."
Capt. Pait said Friday that he was unaware of the note and declined to comment on its contents. He said he had been in the patrol unit for more than two years and had asked months ago to be transferred to the Professional Standards division because he felt it was time for a change. He said he will begin his job in the Professional Standards division Monday. The division is responsible for training, investigating citizens' complaints and investigating officers accused of wrongdoing.
Capt. Pait said he hoped the organizational assessment would benefit not only the department but also the public.
City Manager Sterling Cheatham said he asked Chief Carter to send him a transitional plan to identify the department's key projects before he left. The note in question is what Mr. Cheatham received.
"It's his opinion. I read it and never really had a chance to talk about it," Mr. Cheatham said from his home Friday. He said the note is not a typical transitional plan submitted by an employee who is leaving the job.
"I have extended my apologies to the employees who were named," Mr. Cheatham said.
He said the department does have some issues that are being examined by the Police Executive Research Forum. But if people look at the city's crime statistics, "the work is getting done," he said.
"I believe, and I've said it before, I think we have capable people at the department," Mr. Cheatham said. "Those are his views," he said of Chief Carter's comments.
"The important thing for you to know is that the guys on the street are doing a wonderful job,'' Mr. Cheatham said.
Mr. Cheatham said the memo from Chief Carter was a confidential note that he sent two or three days before he left to take over as chief of the Shelby Police Department. Somehow the note got on a computer drive that was shared by police staff, Mr. Cheatham said. He said it mysteriously appeared late Thursday and began circulating in the department.
Bettie Fennell: 343-2377
bettie.fennell@starnewsonline.com

Thursday, June 19, 2003 8:33AM EDT
Ex-official Garrett sentenced

By ANDREA WEIGL, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- After a three-year investigation into illegal gambling, federal prosecutors on Wednesday secured prison time for their biggest catch -- former state Transportation Secretary Garland B. Garrett Jr.
U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney described Garrett's sentencing as the first phase of an expanding federal inquiry named "Operation Double Black Diamond."
"It goes beyond illegal video poker," said Whitney, who refused to discuss the details of the probe. "It also goes into the corrupting influence video poker has with public officials. We are committed to following the money wherever it goes."
Whitney also announced that Pedroland Inc., which owns the South of the Border attraction straddling the North Carolina-South Carolina state line on Interstate 95, has pleaded guilty to participating in an illegal gambling business and agreed to pay a $400,000 fine.
Garrett, 63, a prominent Democratic fundraiser, was sentenced to five months in a minimum-security federal prison at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base starting Aug. 15, followed by five months in a halfway house. Garrett also must pay a $5,000 fine and complete two years of federal probation.
Last September, Garrett pleaded guilty to one count of operating an illegal gambling business. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed the other 267 charges they had pending against him. Garrett, his father, Garland B. Garrett Sr., and the family business, Cape Fear Music Co., were charged with illegal gambling and money laundering.
On Wednesday, his son, Garland "Trey" Garrett III, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to complete 120 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty in December 2001 to operating an illegal gambling business and agreed to testify against his father and grandfather.
Also Wednesday, the family business entered a guilty plea as a corporation to one count of operating an illegal gambling business and was ordered to pay a $750,000 fine.
All charges had been dismissed against the eldest Garrett, who lives in a nursing home in Wilmington and suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Although video poker is legal in North Carolina, state law limits payouts to replays or prizes worth no more than $10. Federal prosecutors accused the Garretts and their business of leasing machines to clubs and businesses that paid cash awards and of sharing in the proceeds.
In court, lawyers for Garland Garrett Jr. described him as a "broken man" who made some mistakes when he took over the family business after his father became ill. One of the lawyers, Dan Boyce of Raleigh, said Garrett was too emotionally distraught to read a statement he prepared.
So one of Garrett's other lawyers, Woody Webb Jr., read it for him:
"This is the darkest day of my life. I'd like to apologize to the court for the mistakes that I made under very complicated and difficult circumstances. I take full responsibility for my actions in this case and realize that I should have handled things differently while trying to find a buyer for my father's company."
Garrett has long been involved in state politics. He worked on former Gov. Jim Hunt's campaigns for governor in 1976 and 1980 and was finance co-chairman for Rufus Edmisten's 1984 run for governor.
Other big names in North Carolina politics offered their support Wednesday.
Edmisten, a former secretary of state who resigned in 1996 after state auditors accused him of mismanagement, appeared in court. In his chambers, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle reviewed 32 letters vouching for Garrett's character, including ones from former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth and U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, both Republicans.
In 1995, Hunt appointed Garrett to head the state transportation department. Three years later, Garrett was ousted by a scandal involving patronage and politics in road projects.
After Mike Easley became governor in January 2001, he asked his correction secretary to hire Garrett as a lobbyist with a $98,500 annual salary. Anticipating the federal gambling charges, Garrett resigned in November 2001.
Garrett initially faced as much as one year in federal prison. His lawyers -- Boyce, Webb and Woody Webb Sr. -- asked Boyle to give Garrett a lighter sentence because he has to care for his father and be the family breadwinner since his son and wife cannot work because of medical and mental conditions.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Kellen told Boyle that Garrett's family situation didn't warrant a break.
"We would ask the court to send a message to those who violate state gambling statutes, in turn federal statutes, that this conduct will not be tolerated," Kellen said. "We propose a meaningful active sentence in this case to send that message."
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Article published Feb 24, 2004
Wilmington Elks Lodge pleads guilty to gambling charges
The Wilmington Elks Lodge where Garland Garrett Sr., the head of a family amusement machine company caught up in a federal probe, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business, a federal prosecutor said.
The Wilmington Lodge No. 532 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks be fined up to $500,000 for placing illegal video poker machines on its property from around 1985 to 1999, according to a plea agreement.
The lodge paid cash winnings to video poker players in excess of the $10 limit allowed under state law, U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney said.
The lodge pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Raleigh.
Garland Garrett Sr. was an officer, trustee and "Exalted Ruler" of the lodge and was president of the North Carolina Elks Association in 1971. He died last year.
The lodge had an agreement with Garrett's Cape Fear Music Co.
He and his son, Garland B. Garrett Jr., a prominent Democratic Party fund-raiser and former state transportation secretary, were charged with distributing video poker machines that paid out higher cash awards and sharing the proceeds.
A federal judge dismissed charges against Garland Garrett Sr. because Alzheimer's left him incompetent.
Garland Garrett Jr. was sentenced to five months in federal prison after pleading guilty to operating an illegal gambling business.
His son, Garland "Trey" Garrett III, was sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to the same charge. He had agreed to testify against his father and grandfather.

Article published Feb 24, 2004
CUE Center receives a new home
Couple donates office in city
A Hampstead couple has come to the rescue of a Wilmington-based missing persons organization.
After reading in Saturday's Star-News that the organization could no longer afford an office, Mark and Sharon Pool agreed to donate space at 217 Fifth Ave. in Wilmington to the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons.
Monica Caison, the center's founder, said she's thrilled with the offer.
The nonprofit recently vacated its home on Murrayville Road after a two-year lease expired. In the interim, the group has been operating out of Ms. Caison's home. The organization plans to move into its new office April 1.
"We just think she's doing a wonderful job," Mr. Pool said about Ms. Caison. "There is such a need for this type of thing."
Mr. Pool said he and his wife, Sharon, had space available in a historic house they converted into offices. They also are paying for electricity and trash service as well as renovations.
Ms. Caison will sign a year's lease, but Mr. Pool said he doesn't foresee a problem with the organization staying even longer.
"We are proud to have her in the building," Mr. Pool said.
The Pools refurbished the structure, which dates to 1900, about a year ago. The project involved removing asbestos from the outside of the house and restoring its former appearance, Mr. Pool said.
Ms. Caison started the missing persons organization in 1994. The only one of its kind in North Carolina, the group is staffed by volunteers and designed to support families of missing people. The center also helps law enforcement and search-and-rescue agencies look for missing people.
Not having to pay to rent office space, Ms. Caison said, means the center can focus more attention on its mission. Although she had interest from other possible donors, Ms. Caison said she accepted the Pools' offer because they seemed so genuine and happy to help her cause.
More information about the CUE Center is available online at www.ncmissingpersons.org or by calling 232-1687.
Sherry Jones: 343-2378
sherry.jones@starnewsonline.com

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