National Roundup

South Carolina
Groups end ties with club that denied black applicant

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina social club's decision to deny membership a doctor who would have been its first black member has prompted several local groups to cut ties with it.

Military veteran and doctor Melvin Brown was the only one denied membership to the Charleston Rifle Club in October, The Post and Courier reports. The 13 other candidates who were accepted were white, prompting accusations of racism.

Brown is a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan and is an emergency room doctor currently serving on the Medical University of South Carolina's board of trustees.

Since he was denied membership, area bowling groups along with the Kiwanis Club of Charles­ton have stopped using the club's facilities, which sit on 14 acres (5.6 hectares).

Also, the club's favored charity, the March of Dimes, announced Saturday they will no longer accept club support. The club's bylaws bequeath half its assets to the March of Dimes if the club ever dissolves.

"We stand against systemic racism which largely contributes to the negative birth outcomes in the communities we serve - as such, we have chosen not to accept their support moving forward," said Jayna Zelman, head of public relations for the March of Dimes.

On Monday, the Kiwanis Club of Charleston said it will stop holding its weekly meetings at the Charleston Rifle Club.

Charleston Rifle Club president Dru Patterson said in a recent newsletter that members "divided over issues unresolved" should work from within to fix them. The newsletter also notes that, for now, no new membership applications will be accepted.

Patterson did not immediately return phone calls and emails from the newspaper.

Brown said he has stepped back from the club's controversy, which can only be addressed by its members. But he has received an outpouring of support from friends, colleagues and strangers.

North Carolina
DA: Evidence linking man to 2016 rape fell through cracks

LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina prosecutor says authorities failed to act last year on evidence linking a 2016 rape to a released felon now accused of raping and killing a 13-year-old girl.

Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt said Tuesday that deputies didn't follow up after DNA evidence from the earlier rape matched that of Michael Ray McLellan. Only after McClellan's DNA was again found, this time in a vehicle involved in the kidnapping of Hania Noelia Aguilar, did authorities connect the cases.

"At some point, it obviously fell through the cracks," Britt said in a News & Observer report . "You hate it. You punch yourself."

McLellan, 34, is now jailed on charges of raping and killing Hania, who was kidnapped from outside her Lumberton home on Nov. 5. Authorities said she was forced into an SUV. Her body and the SUV were later found several miles away.

Investigators said DNA collected from the SUV was instrumental in leading to McLellan's arrest. McLellan's DNA had been collected for the federal database after he was convicted in 2007 of felony assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree burglary.

But that information wasn't utilized by law enforcement after he was paroled in 2016.

Later that year, a woman was attacked by a man who removed an air-conditioner from a home, crawled through a window and assaulted her at knifepoint. Britt says she had tried to defend herself with a gun, but it didn't fire.

As the state crime lab worked to reduce a backlog of ignored rape kits last year, it discovered that DNA from the 2016 kit matched McLellan. Britt said that information was sent to the district attorney's office and the sheriff's office, and should have prompted investigators to obtain a new DNA sample from McLellan to confirm the test, but no one followed up. McLellan remained free.

In February, he was convicted of felony breaking and entering, and motor vehicle larceny - and released in June, with credit for time served.

In October, police said he pointed a gun at a woman, tried to take her car and demanded money. He left that scene without hurting the woman, and surrendered to police in that case on Nov. 13, eight days after Hania was kidnapped.

Prosecutors charged McLellan in Hania's case while he was in custody for the October attack, but didn't publicly identify him until Saturday, the day of Hania's funeral. Only after that did they charge him with rape and burglary in the 2016 case.

Officials say McClellan will be appointed public defenders, including those who specialize in death penalty cases.

Alabama
Judge rules ­sheriff not immune from blogger's suit

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) - A federal judge says a blogger can sue an Alabama sheriff for allegedly trying to silence her criticism of the officer.

The Decatur Daily reports that U.S. District Judge Madeline Haikala ruled that Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin is not immune from a lawsuit filed by online critic Glenda Lockhart.

Lockhart has written a blog critical of Franklin. The lawsuit says Franklin and some of her deputies bribed Lockhart's grandson to collect information from Lockhart's office and computers. Authorities later searched her business and seized computers.

Lockhart sued Franklin and the sheriff had argued that she was immune from the claims under state law.

The judge disagreed, saying Franklin's legal immunity doesn't protect her from claims of bribery, intimidation and other misconduct meant to silence a private citizen.

Oklahoma
Incompetency claim rejected for man charged in decapitation

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A jury has rejected a mental incompetence claim from a man accused of shooting and decapitating his grandmother and her husband at an in-home day care in Oklahoma City.

The criminal case against 23-year-old Quinton Laster has been on hold for more than two years because of questions over his mental state.

The Oklahoman reports jurors rejected the incompetence claim on Tuesday, which will allow the case to move forward.

Laster is charged with first-degree murder in the February 2016 killings of his grandmother, Sharon Reed, and her husband, James Earl Reed. The killings occurred at the couple's home, which was also used as a day care center.

Three children were found unharmed after the attack.

Laster's attorneys argued that Laster suffers from schizophrenia and is unable to assist in his defense.

Published: Thu, Dec 13, 2018