Man Exonerated After 24 Years In Prison Awarded $3.25M
A North Carolina man who served 24 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit has been awarded $3.25 million in a settlement with the city of Hickory.
The Hickory City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the settlement agreement with Willie Grimes.
Grimes was convicted in 1988 of raping a 69-year-old Hickory woman and sentenced to life plus nine years.
He was paroled in 2012 while still maintaining his innocence. The state Innocence Inquiry Commission investigated his case and found fingerprints from the case did not match Grimes' prints.
That same year, the commission decided enough credible evidence of innocence existed to refer Grimes' case to a three-judge panel, which then exonerated him.
McCrory Holding News Conference To Talk Up Endorsement
Gov. Pat McCrory is holding a rare campaign news conference to highlight an endorsement for his re-election bid.
McCrory was expected to attend Thursday's announcement at a Raleigh hotel for what his campaign billed only as "another major law enforcement endorsement." McCrory usually holds public events organized by his state government office.
The Republican incumbent and rival Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper already have boasted this week their backing from police groups. Cooper says he's been endorsed by the National Association of Police Organizations, while McCrory promoted support from delegates to the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police convention.
Winston-Salem Police Trainee Resigns After Wife Shot
A spokesman for the Winston-Salem Police Department says a trainee who authorities say accidentally shot his wife last year has resigned.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports Capt. Danny Watts of the department's professional standards division said Nikolaos Keefe Tish submitted his resignation on Aug. 9.
According to police, Tish shot his wife, Jessica Marie Tish, in the abdomen on Dec. 29. At the time, investigators said Tish was handling his personal gun when the incident happened. After a criminal investigation, the shooting was ruled an accident and no charges were filed.
Jessica Tish said on social media that she is recuperating.
NC Woman Claims Slander In Response To Lawsuit About Suicide
A North Carolina woman named in a mother's lawsuit about her daughter's suicide has filed a counterclaim for slander.
The Mount Airy News reports Rhonda Cochran filed the counterclaim earlier this month in Surry County. She denies any wrongdoing in the May 2014 death of 26-year-old Megan Wood, and asks the court for more than $25,000 for what she describes as false allegations in a lawsuit filed by Wood's mother, Dawn.
Dawn Wood sued Rhonda Cochran and her husband, Michael Bryan Cochran, in March, saying their actions led her daughter to kill herself. The lawsuit and the response say Michael Cochran was having an affair with Megan Wood.
Branching Out: Stick Sculptor Gains Global Following
An artist who has gained an international following by twisting and weaving sticks and vines into whimsical outdoor sculptures is back in New England to unveil his latest creations.
Patrick Dougherty's installation, "The Wild Rumpus," opens to the public Thursday at Tower Hill Botanical Garden in the central Massachusetts town of Boylston.
The North Carolina-based artist is also set to construct a work early next month at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.
Dougherty has woven more than 270 towering stick creations in Melbourne, Australia; Chiba, Japan; and elsewhere around the globe since he began using branches as a medium in the early 1980s.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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