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Jeff Davis photo
Me and Misty . . .
A silhouetted Steve Snively walks along
Seaforth Beach with his dog Misty looking for treasure at Jordan
Lake with his metal detector. The two had plenty of quality time
together as Snively hunted. One of the most interesting things he
found, besides some nickels and dimes, was a set of keys.
DA seeks death
in murder case
By Bill Willcox
Orange-Chatham District Attorney James Woodall said he will seek the
death penalty for Bobby Lee Person, who is accused of stabbing his
mother to death a year ago.
Person, 29,
of Siler City was arrested Feb. 25, 2007 on charges of first-degree
murder and felony motor vehicle larceny.
Woodall said
he is seeking the death penalty because of two aggravating factors:
that the alleged murder happened during the commission of another
felony, a robbery; and that the murder was exceptionally heinous,
atrocious or cruel.
Person, 29,
allegedly stabbed his mother Colene Person, 53, at least 17 times
and stole her jewelry and a vehicle.
A month
before the alleged murder, he had been released from prison after
serving seven months on convictions of cocaine and assault charges.
Glenn Gerding,
Person’s attorney, said Friday that he intends to fight both
aggravating factors in court.
Also, he said
the victim’s five sisters have signed a letter opposing the death
penalty in this case.
Woodall said
he welcome’s input from the family and it could have a bearing on
his decision.
"It is
important to talk to the family," he said. "I will keep an open
mind."
Superior
Court Judge Allen Baddour instructed Gerding to seek a partner on
the defense team from the state’s Office of the Capital Defender.
Capital
trials are rare in Chatham County. The last one was the Mike Dowd
case in 2000, according to attorney James Williams of the Office of
the Public Defender.
The last time the death
penalty was imposed in the Orange-Chatham Judicial District was
approximately 1970 in an Orange County rape case, said former
District Attorney Carl Fox.
more-
See Thursday,February
28, 2008
paper:
Vol 88, No.13
Jordan Lake
recovers from drought impact
By Bill Willcox
While drought
conditions still persist in North Carolina, Jordan Lake – from which
the Chatham County water system draws water — is now one foot over
full level.
Recent rains,
combined with restricted releases from the dam, due to the ongoing
drought, have combined to fill the lake.
Chatham
County draws its water from the lake with a 3 million gallon per day
(mgd) allotment.
Cary and Apex
also draw from the lake, as well as Morrisville and RTP.
Cary is
currently selling 2 mgd to Durham because of the drought.
The lake has
filled rapidly because of its large watershed.
"One of main
factors is that the drainage basin for the Haw River, and by
extension the lake, is over twice as large as Falls Lake," said
David Hughes, public works director for Chatham County.
The drainage
basin extends to Reidsville, north of Greensboro.
Also there is
less withdrawal of water from the lake, compared to Falls Lake, the
source of 40 mgd for Raleigh.
Jordan Lake has never entered
the month of April without being full, Hughes said, since it was
first impounded in 1981.
more-
See Thursday,
February 28, 2008
paper:
Vol 88, No.13
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as school
officials search for superintendent . . .
Totten:
‘too much
secrecy’ in system
By Spencie Love
Just what
role should local citizens, school staff, and educational experts
play in helping local School Board members choose a new
Superintendent?
The question
surfaced last week shortly after the Chatham School Board released
survey results reflecting community and staff responses to a
Superintendent survey conducted over the last few weeks.
Some believe
that a Superintendent search should occur behind closed doors with
only School Board members weighing in on who the final candidate
should be.
Others say
the whole process should be more open, allowing community and staff
members to register opinions once the field of candidates is
narrowed down to two or three possibilities.
At a board
meeting last November, Dr. Edward Dunlap of the National School
Board Association told the Chatham Board that his organization would
assist in recommending candidates for a new permanent School
Superintendent for the county and recommended that the Chatham
conduct a broad survey on what qualities in a Superintendent both
school staff and community members valued most.
He went on to
say that confidentiality was of paramount importance since
candidates seeking a new Superintendent job wouldn’t want their
current employers to know they were out looking for a new job.
The Chatham
School Board on Monday, February 11 handed out "redactive" Xeroxed
documents to all those attending the meeting, showing the responses
to the survey from both staff and community residents. No individual
respondents’ names were shown—all had been blacked out.
School Board
member Col. Gerald Totten subsequently checked the Chatham Schools
website, expecting the results of the survey to be posted there.
When Totten didn’t find them, he e-mailed interim School
Superintendent David Bryant and requested that the results be
published on the website as public information.
Bryant
immediately responded and posted all the edited information that had
been handed out at the board meeting.
However,
according to Bryant, two or three other board members contacted him
within the next couple of days and said they "weren’t ready" to have
the information posted on the website. They told him that the board
should have first discussed how and when to make the information
public, possibly even hold a vote on the matter
Bryant, in
response, withdrew the results of the survey from the website.
"I guess I
jumped the gun after one member called me," Bryant said. "Then we
decided to take the info off the website after I’d thoroughly
stirred the waters up."
Totten, learning of the
decision to withdraw the information, notified fellow board members.
He said he believed the Chatham Schools were in violation of the law
about disclosure of public information, He said he had consulted
with both a North Carolina Press Association attorney and a North
Carolina School Board Association attorney.
more-
See Thursday,
February 28, 2008
paper:
Vol 88, No.13
Fired jailer
says she was ‘crucified’
By Spencie Love
Last week,
the Chatham Sheriff’s Office fired Bonnie Walsh, the senior
detention officer who was on duty February 4 when five men escaped
from the county jail in Pittsboro, and she commented on the action
in a brief interview last week
Walsh, 61,
expressed tremendous anguish over losing her job.
She has said
she had a 30-year record of performing well in many different jobs.
She had worked at the Chatham jail for 14 months at the time of the
jail escape.
She
previously had worked for the South Carolina Department of
Corrections for 11 years.
"I have tried
so hard to maintain a wonderful record," she said. "I feel I am
being crucified by this incident. I need Chatham residents to know
they [the Sheriff’s Office] want you to know only what they want you
to know."
The escape,
she said, "was like a freak accident. There is never just one person
involved in an incident like this."
Walsh has
been faulted for failing to lock an outside door into the cellblock
where five inmates were hiding, planning an escape, when detention
officer Thomas "Tommy" Clark, 58, entered the middle cell block for
nightly lockdown.
Clark and
Walsh both ended up being restrained—Clark was tied up with old
shirts and Walsh was handcuffed—as the five men stole the jail key
from Clark and made their escape.
According to
Captain Michael Roberson of the Chatham Sheriff’s Office, Walsh was
fired because she was the senior detention officer on duty and all
the correct procedures during lockdown were not followed.
Walsh said
she has been traumatized by the incident and has gone to see doctors
to help her recover in recent days.
She has not
blamed Clark in any way for what happened, but she said she feels
she has been a scapegoat in the set of events that led to the
escape.
Normally, three detention
officers are on duty in the Chatham on most nights. Only two were
available on the night of the escape.
more-
See Thursday,
February 28, 2008
paper:
Vol 88, No.13
Moncure man
aims to unseat Sen. Dole
By Randall Rigsbee
As a newcomer
to politics, Moncure resident Howard Staley admits his campaign to
be a Democratic contender to unseat U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole is
an "uphill battle."
But Staley,
who has been traveling around the state in recent weeks making
campaign appearances, says he‘s a serious candidate.
"Right now my
campaign is focusing on the primary on May 16," Staley said in a
telephone interview this week. "I’m trying to get my name known to
as many Democrats as possible."
Staley said
he’s running for the U.S. Senate primarily because of his concern
about health care in the United States and the lack of it for all
residents.
"I think our
health care right now is a broken system," he said.
Staley, a
podiatrist with a practice in Sanford, elaborated on his platform in
a press release. "It is the gaps and limitations that are left in
insurance that present difficulties in providing what I feel to be
the best of care," he said.
Staley said
he proposes "a combination of government subsidized health care to
allow access to the health care system for all residents of the
United States and restoring some level of a free market economy to
help lower medical fees. Insurance companies would be the
intermediate step as an option."
Staley, a
52-year-old New Jersey native, moved to Chatham County in 1998. He
lives in Moncure with his wife, Helene, and their three sons.
"As a U.S.
Senator," Staley said, "I would base my decisions on how it would
affect the individual citizens of our nation more than on how it
would affect corporations and investors. During the Bush
administration, Senator Dole agreed with almost all of the proposals
that benefited the wealthy at the expense of the less affluent. If
Senator Dole remains in office she will no doubt resist any attempt
to change these policies. This means that more money will flow to
the wealthiest five percent of our population, and less will be
available to the rest of the people. If I am elected U.S. Senator, I
will support a return to a more progressive tax system."
While a
political newcomer, having never sought any other elected office,
Staley said he would bring a unique perspective to Washington.
"As a candidate, I am not a
lawyer. I am not a banker. I am a self-employed doctor who has spent
my entire working career making decisions that are not based on my
own self-interest rather based on the best interests of my
patients," he said. "I have not placed money or politics as the
measure of success. My practice has been a small business, which I
have run successfully despite the hardships small businesses face."
more-
See Thursday,
February 28, 2008
paper:
Vol 88, No.13
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