If a new law is passed this year by the General Assembly, property owners who allow gang activity at their place of business may soon find themselves shut down.
“It could be a convenience store, bar or nightclub, or apartment building, but if the owner continues to allow illegal gang activity at their establishment after being put on notice we will be able to take civil action,” said Jacksonville Police Chief Mike Yaniero, chairman of the N.C. Metro Coalition of Chiefs of Police, the organization which is pushing for the bill.
In an attempt to stem crime caused by gangs, metro police chiefs have asked the legislature to pass the N.C. Street Gang Nuisance Abatement Act, which would make it easier for police departments to sue property owners and gangs as a means of preventing crime.
The bill appears on track to become law this summer, having passed the N.C. House and on schedule to be reviewed by the Senate during the current short session.
“The purpose of a nuisance abatement lawsuit is not to show or prove that the property owner is guilty of illegal acts, but rather to prove that the property owner allowed the illegal activity to occur on the property or failed to make reasonable attempts to stop it,” said Yaniero, who is also director for Region VIII of the N.C. Association Of Chiefs Of Police.
The law is modeled after anti-gang legislation in 16 other states, he said.
Some civil rights experts said they are leery the law could trample constitutional rights.
“The Supreme Court has essentially said that being a member of a gang is not, in and of itself, a crime,” Sarah Preston, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, recently told The Fayetteville Observer. “So we want to make sure people aren’t being punished for activity that is not criminal in nature, but simply because law enforcement is fearful that a crime might occur.”
Fayetteville police recently employed a similar tactic in obtaining court orders to bar gang members from attending April’s Dogwood Festival. In the days leading up to the festival there were several gang-related incidents, but after the papers were served and during the festival there were no reported incidents, according to the Fayetteville Police Department.
The new law would allow authorities to sue gangs directly. The pending law states that any gang with members who commit five crimes in a year is to be considered a public nuisance. A judge could then order gang members to stop their criminal activities and impose preventive measures to prevent the gang from engaging in future crimes.
A similar law has been in place for two decades in Los Angeles where the city has had 44 injunctions against 72 gangs, according to The Associated Press.
Examples of possible restrictions include rulings that gang members cannot:
- Be together except while attending school classes.
- Engage in illegal activities.
- Sell drugs.
- Carry weapons.
- Consume alcohol in public.
- Disregard a curfew.
Contact Daily News Senior Reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456 or lkay@freedomenc.com. Read his crime blog, "Off the Cuff," at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com. Follow him on Twitter and friend him on Facebook @ 1lindell.
Source: www.jdnews.com
Police: Burned SUV with bodies is missing family's - The Guardian
AMANDA LEE MYERS
Associated Press= TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — An acquaintance concerned about a Phoenix suburban family contacted police, who went to the home of the Butwin family and found "suspicious and concerning" evidence — but not the Butwins — and began treating the case as a murder-suicide.
The family's white Ford Expedition also was gone.
Meanwhile, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office was investigating the discovery of five bodies found burned beyond recognition in a white Ford Expedition in the desert 35 miles south of Phoenix on Saturday morning.
The SUV found burning in the desert was registered to the missing family of five, including three children, police in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe said Tuesday.
The news has left the Butwins' neighbors baffled. Neighbors who talked to The Associated Press said that James and Yafit Butwin were going through a divorce and he was battling a brain tumor.
"From what we know them to be, this is totally unexpected to the point of almost being unbelievable," neighbor Robert Kempton said." We'll choose to remember them in the wonderful, positive light that we knew them."
The Butwin family acquaintance who first called authorities told police on Monday that he was worried about them after receiving a note from James Butwin with instructions on how to operate his construction business without him, Tempe police Sgt. Jeff Glover said.
Investigators went to the Butwin home, but Glover declined to specify what evidence was found. He did say that no murder weapon was found in the home.
Glover said that the Pinal County Sheriff's Office notified them that the SUV in the desert was registered to the Butwin family's home.
He said that although they can't be entirely certain that the Butwins are the same five people found in the burning SUV, investigators are so sure that they're dead that they aren't looking for them and believe there are no outstanding suspects.
Glover said that James and his wife Yafit Butwin were experiencing financial difficulties, and court records show that Yafit filed for divorce in September and that the process was ongoing.
Two of the couple's children were teenagers and one was a pre-teen, but Glover did not have their exact ages.
The five bodies found in the desert have not been positively identified because they were burned so badly beyond recognition, said Gregory Hess, chief medical examiner for Pima County.
He said the bodies could have included older children but not younger ones.
He said the office will have to use dental records to try to confirm the identities of the bodies.
Kempton told The Associated Press that the couple had confided in him about the divorce and James Butwin's brain tumor.
Kempton said that after chemotherapy, the tumor returned and that James was discouraged that treatment wasn't helping him.
Kempton said he and his wife were planning a summer trip to Israel with the Butwins. Yafit Butwin is from Israel.
"I would have thought that they would have worked through this," Kempton said, referring to the divorce. "This is a big shock."
Kempton said he has lived in the well-manicured, upper-middle-class neighborhood for 12 years, and the Butwins moved in a few years afterward.
Kempton said that he thinks the children were a 16-year-old girl, and 14- and 8-year-old boys.
Yafit Butwin's Facebook page shows her last post came on Friday — a picture of James, with the three smiling kids and a caption that reads: "Happy birthday, Jim. I am so proud of my three children:) and they know why."
An attorney for Yafit Butwin, Steven Wolfson, told The Arizona Republic that Yafit Butwin immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1990s from Israel and married Butwin in New Jersey. He said the couple was still living together during the divorce under a temporary agreement to share the home.
"She was looking forward to starting over, and she loved her children very much," Wolfson said.
Wolfson said that Yafit Butwin never sought an order of protection and said there was no hint of domestic violence problems. "This is out of the blue as far as we're concerned," he said.
Earlier Tuesday, the sheriff's office said they were also investigating the possibility that the burned bodies belonged to five men involved in illegal activities.
Sheriff's spokesman Tim Gaffney said a man who asked to remain anonymous called investigators Saturday and said that his brother-in-law was involved in illegal activity and feared that he could be among the dead. The man said his brother-in-law told him the night before the bodies were found that he was "going to Vekol Valley to make money" with four of his acquaintances.
The man told investigators that when he tried to call his brother-in-law and the other men on their cellphones, the calls all went straight to voicemail.
The men were last seen driving a Ford SUV, but detectives have been unable to talk to the tipster since Sunday.
The sheriff's office declined to answer any questions about the information in the statement or whether they thought one possibility was more likely than another.
Sheriff Paul Babeu said Monday that the location of the smoldering SUV in a known smuggling corridor and the nature of the crime itself had him all but certain that a violent smuggling cartel was responsible.
Babeu said that the burned car likely is the same car that a Border Patrol agent saw four hours earlier Saturday when it was still dark.
The agent saw a stopped white Ford Expedition and became suspicious, but when he approached, the vehicle fled and the agent lost track if the vehicle, Babeu said.
When the sun came up, the same agent saw car tracks in the area leading into the desert and shortly after, found a smoldering white Ford Expedition, Babeu said.
When the agent approached the car, he saw four burned bodies lying down in the back of the vehicle, and one body in the back passenger seat; no one was in the driver's or front passenger's seat.
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Associated Press Writer Whitney Phillips contributed to this report.
Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/(hash)!/AmandaLeeAP
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Law Offices of James Scott Farrin Donates Durham Bulls Tickets to the Boys and Girls Club - PRWeb
Durham, NC (PRWEB) June 06, 2012
The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin was honored to donate Durham Bulls tickets to the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club of Durham, North Carolina. Thanks to the firm’s gift, the group was able to watch the Durham Bulls square off against the Indianapolis Indians on Friday, April 27.
It was an exciting game for the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club to see. While the Bulls ultimately lost, the team displayed the same fighting spirit that made them famous in the movie “Bull Durham.”
“The firm likes to do what it can to give back to the community,” said President James S. Farrin. “Durham Bulls’ games are a beloved local tradition, and we were happy to make it possible for the youth with the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club to become a part of that tradition.”
The mission of the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club is to enable all young people “to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens” through support from ongoing relationships with caring, adult professionals. The Durham Bulls tickets donated by the firm allowed the boys and girls to spend quality time with their mentors while also enjoying a beloved summer pastime.
About the Firm:
The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is headquartered in the American Tobacco Historic District, adjacent to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, in Durham, North Carolina, with 12 additional offices statewide in Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Goldsboro, Henderson, New Bern, Raleigh, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Sanford and Wilson. The firm’s 28 attorneys focus on the following practice areas: Personal Injury, Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability, Bankruptcy, Intellectual Property, Civil Rights, Mass Torts and Products Liability. Three of the attorneys are North Carolina Board Certified Specialists in Workers’ Compensation Law, one is a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Social Security Disability Law and one is a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law. The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is involved in the community, including sponsorship of local philanthropic organizations and an active employee matching donation program.
Filing for bankruptcy is subject to qualification. The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is a debt relief agency. It helps people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.
Contact Information:
Eric Sanchez
800-220-7321
http://www.farrin.com
http://www.farrin.com/facebook
http://www.farrin.com/twitter
http://www.farrin.com/google+
Source: www.prweb.com
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