Lawyers speak about alleged abuse in Uptown Jail

Local advocates, community members and stakeholders will hold a press conference Monday morning outside the Mecklenburg County Detention Center in Uptown to address the horrific living conditions and ongoing human rights abuses reported by those detained there.

The Charlotte Bail Fund, which raises community funds to pay the bail of pretrial detainees who cannot afford it themselves, is hosting the press conference to raise awareness of what those incarcerated in the jail have told organizers, their lawyers and family members.

“Four people have died at Mecklenburg County Jail Central since December 2023,” said a press release for the press conference. Under Sheriff Garry McFadden, who took office in December 2018, the number of deaths among the facility's inmates has doubled.

According to the Charlotte Bail Fund, inmates report that their laundry is not done and that some inmates are forced to wear the same clothes for days or even weeks in prison.

“The central prison is not only understaffed, but also severely overcrowded,” the press release states. “Lawyers report that their clients have seen prisoners forced to sleep on the floor because there are not enough beds. Other reports describe that some prisoners do not receive every meal.”

Read more: Former employees speak out about problems at Mecklenburg County Jail (2022)

The press conference comes a month after the family of Russell Fincham, who died in the Uptown Jail in 2022, filed a lawsuit against the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, alleging that jail officials failed to provide him with adequate emergency medical care.

Speakers on Monday will address the alleged abuses inmates endure in prison and offer suggestions on “what changes are needed to treat those incarcerated with dignity and humanity.” Queen City Nerve will continue to follow this story as it develops.

Court finds that CMS withheld relevant information when requesting public records

A special prosecutor in Mecklenburg County Superior Court ruled Friday that documents released by WBTV in May relating to sexual assaults in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools should be considered public records and should have been made available to the station in response to a public records request.

The school district had argued that the disciplinary records released by WBTV — spreadsheets containing aggregated data on cases of sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual offenses and rape at CMS schools — were rightly withheld because they fell under the category of student records and were not considered public records.

In his decision on Friday, Special Envoy Stephen J. Dunn stated that the records, which contain information that could enable
Individual student identification – including student ID, name, gender, race, birth date and age – has been redacted and should not be considered part of an individual student’s official record, but is considered a public record under the NC Public Records Act.

The records released by WBTV, titled “Student Sexual Harassment Disciplinary Data,” covered the 2010-11 through 2014-15 school years. The station obtained them through a confidential source. Dunn ruled that all similar documents related to the 2015-16 school year should be turned over to WBTV.

“While the Board is disappointed and disagrees with the Special Counsel's decision, we have acted in the best interests of students throughout the litigation by protecting the confidentiality of student information,” CMS said in a press release Friday evening. “While we must comply with the Special Counsel's decision in this case, we remain committed to protecting student records and we will continue to make every effort to protect our students' confidential information. The Board [of Education] and the General Counsel acted with integrity and correctness and had the best interests of the students in mind.”

Man dies when motorhome crashes into police vehicles

A driver killed one person and injured two police officers on the side of I-485 on Thursday when he crashed into a police vehicle participating in an investigation.

According to CMPD, police responded to a 911 call about a stolen vehicle on the shoulder of I-485 at Mt. Holly Road just after 8:15 a.m. Thursday. At about 10:15 a.m., while officers were still investigating, the driver of an RV driving past the scene on the Mt. Holly Road exit ramp struck two police cars and the civilian who reported the theft of the vehicle to officers.

In the above map of vehicle-related deaths in Charlotte in 2024, red markers represent people killed in their car, black markers represent pedestrian deaths, purple markers represent motorcyclist deaths, and green markers represent deaths related to micromobility vehicles such as bicycles, scooters, skateboards, and wheelchairs.

The civilian, later identified as 29-year-old Brian Battle, was pronounced dead at the scene. A police officer who was trapped in his vehicle was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, as were a second officer and the driver of the RV. All of the injured are expected to make a full recovery. No charges had been filed at the time of CMPD's last update on Friday, but the investigation is ongoing.

According to our tracking (above), Battle was the seventh person and third pedestrian killed on Charlotte's streets during the eight-day period from August 15 to 22.

8-year-old shot in incident in southwest Charlotte

An 8-year-old child was shot in the stomach in an accidental shooting incident at a home on West Arrowood Road in southwest Charlotte Thursday afternoon.

According to CMPD Major Jonathan Thomas, officers responded to a 911 call about a shooting at an extended-stay hotel around 2 p.m. and found the 8-year-old victim with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound that came from inside the hotel room.

Thomas said there were “family members and other individuals” in the room at the time and that it appears the shooting occurred from an accidental discharge. Thomas said the investigation is ongoing to determine if anyone will face charges.

“We are just glad that the child is not seriously injured,” he added.

Arrest of a 34-year-old after hit-and-run

Detectives from CMPD's Major Accident Investigation Division released information Friday about the latest charges in a 34-year-old unsolved fatal hit-and-run case.

Just before 4 p.m. on Friday, December 29, 1989, 52-year-old Ruth Buchanan was crossing the intersection of 5th and North Tryon Streets in Uptown when she was struck by a dark-colored vehicle that failed to stop at a red light. The driver of the suspect vehicle fled the scene. Buchanan later died at Charlotte Memorial Hospital.

Witnesses gave investigators the license plate number and a description of the car, which they found on South Tryon Street the following month. Technicians collected evidence from the vehicle, a Mitsubishi Galant suspected to have been stolen from a Charlotte auto dealership.

Due to a lack of additional evidence, the case remained open for 32 years until investigators received a tip from an anonymous caller in 2022 who identified a man believed to be involved in the crash. Although the new suspect was determined not to be involved, during the subsequent investigation, the CMPD Crime Lab analyzed physical evidence from the suspect's vehicle, which was still in evidence storage at CMPD Headquarters.

DNA analysis and evidence examination led investigators to Herbert Stanback, 68, who is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence at the Scotland Correctional Institution in Laurinburg in connection with an unrelated case.

In March, CMPD detectives traveled to Laurinburg to speak with Stanback, who reportedly confirmed he was the driver of the vehicle that struck Buchanan that day in 1989. According to CMPD, Stanback was incarcerated at the Charlotte Correctional Facility at the time of the accident but was on parole. CMPD obtained a warrant for Stanback's arrest for hit-and-run causing serious injury or death, who was transported to Mecklenburg County and formally charged in June.

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Lawyers speak about alleged abuse in Uptown Jail