Mint Hill, North Carolina — mint hill committee The group will meet for the first time since the large-scale investigation at WCNC Charlotte on Thursday night. It says town police seized $69,000 from a sex offender, worked with the federal government to secretly store the cash, and as part of a civil court judgment, the children he abused were given the money. It was revealed that they had prevented the collection.
In the weeks since WCNC Charlotte first reported, fraudpeople all over the country were blown up. mint hill police station On the town’s social media accounts, Member of Parliament has expressed concern about the need for reform, with an opinion columnist for the Charlotte Observer stating: accused The police were essentially stealing money for the now teenage girl.
The town’s elected leaders are Rejected At the urging of the attorney and town manager, comment publicly on this incident. Brian Welch.Email from Welch to Commissioner Twana Hendersonobtained through a public records request and advised her to ignore WCNC Charlotte’s request for comment.
“I would prefer to ignore it for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is the possibility of future litigation. What happened to that young woman is clearly terrible,” Welch said in an Oct. 4 email. Indeed, some issues have nothing to do with other issues.” “Regardless of any individual’s feelings about asset forfeiture, and regardless of any future federal law, this fund will be treated like any other fund we have ever participated in and will be dispersed in accordance with all federal regulations related to it. I did.”
Credit: WCNC Charlotte
The girl’s family and lawyer claim they assured Mint Hill police officers the money would be kept as evidence, meaning it could eventually be pursued in a civil lawsuit.email from Police Chief Joseph Hatley “For your information, no one told her we were holding the money,” the letter to commissioners, also obtained through a public records request, says.
WCNC Charlotte also obtained text messages between the chief and at least one unknown person.
“And who told you the money was waiting there?” one of them wrote on October 2nd.
“Nobody did that. Once she got the public copy of the report, she found out we had seized the money,” the other replied.
“Didn’t someone tell the truth? Shocking!” The following message appears:
“Truth doesn’t sell,” one responder wrote.
Credit: WCNC Charlotte
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The victim’s mother told WCNC Charlotte that officers contacted the family early on and questioned whether the suspect had actually won the lottery the previous year. WCNC Charlotte can confirm he really had I won the lottery.
In another text message exchange, the chief told someone that federal authorities were “aware and not concerned” about the court order secured by the boy’s family in the case.
As WCNC Charlotte previously reported, MHPD partnered with federal agencies to receive $69,000 on drug charges from a man they investigated for sex crimes. Authorities never charged him with drug crimes, but thanks to federal law, the department was able to keep the cash and spend it before victims could sue sex offenders for damages. .
In recent months, the family, unaware that the seized cash was missing, obtained a state judge’s order that the girl had the right to stake a claim for the money. An attorney for MHPD told WCNC Charlotte that the judge’s court order has no authority because the cash passed through the federal fair share program three years ago.
Credit: WCNC Charlotte
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The Mint Hill Commission will meet Thursday night at 7 p.m. This meeting will be the first public meeting since the WCNC Charlotte investigation.The mayor canceled previously scheduled appointments. October 12th meeting Because they are “unable to conduct business.”
Contact Nate Morabito. nmorabito@wcnc.com and follow him Facebook, X and Instagram.
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