Last Weeks News

Federal Charge brought against ex-Brunswick County Sheriff on May 8th.

Federal charges brought against Hewett for grilling those subpoenaed about proceedings and tampering with witnesses called to testify in front of the Grand Jury. The Felony charges are unrelated to what the Grand Jury has been meeting about for the past year. On June 25, four days after Capt. Gene Caison had returned from being questioned by a federal grand jury, Hewett pulled him into an office and began questioning him on what the grand jury was looking for.

"I told Hewett that I answered their questions in the grand jury vaguely and the U.S. attorney seemed to be frustrated by my answers," said Caison, who has been a friend of Hewett's since childhood, in his sworn deposition. "I further told Hewett that the U.S. attorney told me not to talk about my testimony and I wasn't going to discuss it because I felt like the government was going to come after me. Hewett started to cry, and I shed a tear as well."

Through July, Hewett asked those subpoenaed what they told the grand jury, Caison said. At one staff meeting Hewett "was crying and out of control and acting crazy," Caison said.

Don't think this is anywhere near being over! Hewett will appear in front of Judge Britt on this charge, June 2nd, 9AM in Raleigh.

After a long and controversial debate and several votes John William Ingram received enough votes to become the man the Democrats will present to the County Commissioners as the next Sheriff of Brunswick County. Ingram had served as Chief Deputy of Columbus County prior to accepting the job as Chief Deputy of Brunswick County in April. 95 members of the Brunswick County Democratic Party’s executive committee gave 94.5 votes to Ingram and 81.5 votes to the Longshoreman's union president Willie Sloan. Some members of the executive committee had more than one vote, and they could cast a split ballot, which means a person’s total votes could go to more than one candidate. Ingram's residency was an issue which may have caused the votes to be so close.

No matter what people say, Ingram's affidavit filed with Rex Gore's office regarding the Hewett investigation showed him to have admirable professional ethics.

"In 2003, Sheriff Ronald Hewett was building a new residence. During this time I was instructed by Sheriff Ronald Hewett to get the Brunswick County Drug Unit to go to his (Hewett's) house and lay rock. The rock was to be laid along the driveway of Ronald Hewett's house. I drove my personal truck and took personal leave time to work at Sheriff Hewett's house."
- John Ingram, employed by the sheriff 1991-2004

Star News Sunday Editorial.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Louise W. Flanagan dismissed the civil lawsuit filed more than four years ago on behalf of Gary Rummer, a 50-year-old man who died as the result of injuries suffered while in custody at the New Hanover County jail.

Rummer died of blunt force trauma to the head and a broken neck. He was injured Jan. 14, 2003, transported while in a coma two and a half hours to Raleigh , he died two days later.

Judge Flanagan's order regarding the defendants motion for summary judgment.

Meanwhile....

TAMPA - Six years after a restaurant accident that he blamed for ending his professional wrestling career, Brian Blair has settled his negligence lawsuit against Carrabba's Italian Grill.

The attorney for Carrabba's, meanwhile, was ready to offer as evidence a videotape of Blair's wrestling match in Japan and two other surveillance tapes of Blair made months after the accident, as well as medical records showing Blair was legally impaired at the time of the fall.

No terms of the agreement were released, and no one connected with the case was saying Monday what prompted the settlement after almost five years of litigation.

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THE REMAINS OF PAMELA WALDHER HAVE BEEN FOUND IN HARNETT COUNTY ...ANOTHER YOUNG COUNTY WOMAN REMAINS MISSING

Pamela Waldher went missing January 2005. Her story can be found on NC WANTED and on our blog site crime.blogs.com.

On January 5, 2006 Harnett County resident Susan Renee Andersen, 19, did not come home from work. Her family has not heard from her since. The Harnett County Sheriff's Office claim they spoke with someone purporting to be Susan in May of 2006. The Harnett investigators closed the case after that even though they did not have any proof of life that would have required law enforcement to visually identify her. The CUE Center for Missing Person's was recently asked, by the Andersen family, to help in the search for their missing daughter. Since CUE's involvement in July the Sheriff 's Office has reopened the missing person case. After that, the Sheriff's Office has refused to respond to repeated phone calls and email messages. The family assumes the investigators have failed to locate Susan or any one who has seen her since she failed to return home after work January 5, 2006. CUE Center Press Release

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Older news

WHY IS PEYTON STRICKLAND DEAD ?
Peyton Strickland, 18 was shot and killed in a paramilitary raid by the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office and the UNCW Police. Strickland, unarmed and at home, was killed, according to Sheriff Causey, for failing to open the door in proper time. Causey said, "If this boy would've come to the door - opened the door - we probably wouldn't be talking," . Autopsy report shows that Deputy Chris Long's shot to Strickland's head passed thru a door prior to hitting Mr. Strickland. NHSD and UNCW Police were in the process of serving a search warrant for a stolen Playstation video game.
Listen to our entire 2 hour show on this from December 9, 2007

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