The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 14

THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER I wwwcharlottccom 2B TUESDAY OCTOBER 2 2007 Alexander Iredefl Burke STAY UP TO DATE AT WWWCHAKLOTTECOM SBI INQUIRY RECOMMENDED iPspnieirafe to legnsDatoir tpesttmedl odd irepiM Catawba County Fight for custody of leg on hold as amputee seeks ride to talks MAIDEN A custody battle over an SC amputated leg was postponed Monday while the man tried to find a ride to Maiden where the limb is being stored John Wood and Shannon Whisnant arc trying to come to an agreement about leg which Whisnant found last week in a used barbecue smoker he bought at an auction in Maiden Wood had stored the leg after it was amputated following an airplane crash They had planned to meet Monday to talk about ownership but Wood was not able to find a ride from Greenville SC to Maiden Whisnant said He said they are planning to meet later this week Police gave the leg to a Maiden funeral home to store until Wood could pick it up MARCIE YOUNG NC Rep Wright was reimbursed twice for meetings says DHHS ALUKA BERRY THE (COLUMBIA) STATE PHOTO Domestic-violence awareness At a rally against domestic violence Monday on the steps of the SC State House in Columbia Doris Robinson tearfully holds a wooden silhouette representing her son Tarqui-nius Leonard Russell who was stabbed to death by a girlfriend in 2006 He is among 50 known victims of domestic violence who died in South Carolina last year reau of Investigation Wright is already under investigation over his campaign finances and his attempt to purchase property with an apparently false guarantee of state funds He was a top lieutenant to former House Speaker Jim Black a Matthews Democrat in federal prison after pleading guilty to corruptly receiving cash payments from campaign donors Current House Speaker Joe Hackney an Orange County Democrat and others have called for resignation On Monday Hackney said he asked a legislative ethics committee to investigate the double reimbursements office also found that a publicly fmided NC nonprofit that aides Medicaid recipients paid $35000 over two years to Wright to develop a network of health care providers But now the NC Foundation for Advanced Health Programs find a copy of the contract Berryman wrote he could not verify whether Wright fulfilled his obligations under the contract SBI spokeswoman Nocllc Talley said Monday the investigation is ongoing Wright did not return a message left on his mobile phone By David Ingram dmgramcharlotteobservercom RALEIGH State Rep Thomas Wright has been paid 19 times since 2000 for lodging meals and travel to Raleigh for meetings involving the NC Department of Health and Human Services But in eight of those cases Wright should have already been in Raleigh for legislative sessions and received reimbursement from both DHHS and the General Assembly according to a DHHS report released Monday Thomas Berryman the DHHS director of internal auditing also wrote that Wright twice received $104 for meals and lodging from the department even though the department paid for his lodging directly and that Wright claimed excessive mileage on one trip totaled $1405 Berryman wrote Separately Wright a Wilmington Democrat received an additional $35000 in mostly state money under a cloudy arrangement with a nonprofit the report said Berryman recommended a further inquiry by the State Bu ing money The note indicated the man was armed but he show a weapon according to the FBI Nobody was hurt in the robbery The man left the bank in a two-door convertible Chrysler Sebring described as maroon or burgundy with a black top The robber is described as a black man between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall with a muscular build He appeared 30 to 33 years old and had short dark hair and a well-groomed beard He wore a white and light blue windbreakcr and had a shiny earring in each car Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at 704-377-9200 MELISSA MANWARE Mecklenburg County Black Parents Forum sponsors private-school info session Black families interested in private schools are invited to a free event at Trinity Episcopal School on Oct 20 The events are sponsored by Black Parents Forum an Atlanta-based group created by Terry Williams an editor whose publications target parents and teachers of African American children Representatives from day and boarding schools will be recruiting students and teachers at the Charlotte school 750 Ninth St Sessions for teachers are from 9 am to noon and for students and their families from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm Details: wwwyounghorizons onlinecomCharlottehtm or 404-241-5003 ANN DOSS HELMS Man in jail accused of assaulting women uptown A 20-year-old man remained in jail late Monday charged with a series of assaults on women Saturday morning in uptown area Christopher Tabb 20 of Charlotte is in a Mecklenburg County jail facing five charges related to the alleged assaults According to WCNC-TV the news partner and other reports the assaults took place about 7:30 am on North Church Street WCNC is reporting that someone grabbed a woman and threw her to the ground then a short time later exposed himself to another woman and grabbed her Tabb was arrested and charged with felony second-degree rape by force two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery indecent exposure and resisting an officer He is being held on $37000 bond Mecklenburg County records show a lengthy record of arrests for Tabb They include charges as recently as two months ago for indecent exposure STEVE LYTTLE Former restaurant owner turns himself in to face charge The former owner of a popular Pincvillc restaurant turned himself in Monday Robert Marotta 37 was charged last week with filing a false police report He was booked into the Mecklenburg County jail on Monday and then released on a $500 bond The morning of July 20 a Restaurant employee dialed 911 and told officers that the door to the restaurant was open Marotta was missing and his SUV was gone Police said they found signs of a violent scuffle in the kitchen Thirty-four hours later Marotta was found stabbed in rural Gaston County He told police been attacked by two men Now Pincville police say his story was not true MELISSA manware FBI on lookout for robber of Coastal credit union The FBI is seeking the identity of a man dubbed the Clean-cut Bandit who robbed the Coastal Federal Credit Union on West WT Harris Boulevard on Monday The man entered the bank at about 1:15 pm and gave a teller a note demand IREDELL COUNTY MURDER CASE 7 schools secured as suspect hunted Elsewhere In Region family files suit regarding furniture-store blaze CHARLESTON The family of one of nine Charleston firefighters killed battling a blaze in a furniture store filed a lawsuit Monday against the business owner those who built the store and makers of the furniture inside The lawsuit filed on behalf of the estate of Melvin Champaign asks for unspecified damages for negligence Champaign and eight other firefighters were killed in the Sofa Super Store fire on June 18 Autopsies showed the men died from burns and smoke inhalation It was the single worst loss of firefighters since the 2001 terror attacks associated press Man charged after being found in woods CATAWBA NATION CATAWBA RIVER WATER TRANSFER NC must reply to SC water suit court says High court rejects poker appeal a murder Authorities attempted to arrest Fava around 9 am at a residence on Pinto Road in Mooresville said Mooresville Police Chief John Crone Fava though ran into the surrounding woods authorities said leading to the lockdown Two high schools three middle schools and three clcmcntarics in Iredell County were put on partial lock-down which consists of locking exterior doors Armed deputies from various agencies patrolled the area around Cornelius and Pinto roads while a police helicopter circled overhead and a K-9 unit searched the woods Crone saw two abandoned trailers and called more deputies to the far perimeter of the search area Fava was found in the kitchen closet of one of the trailers and arrested without incident around 1:30 pm The search began Sunday after a missing-person report was filed for Nichols Deputies found his body near Mezeppa Road in Mooresville on Sunday and arrested Small and Robinson the same day Hermansen the only one to receive bond was arrested Monday morning and held on $250000 bond at the Iredell Detention Center with the three other staff researcher SARA KLEMMER AND ALEX REED OF WCNC CONTRIBUTED By Dan Tierney dtierneycharlotteobservercom Authorities on Monday arrested a 23-ycar-old Mooresville man accused of murder after searching more than four hours through a lakeside patch of woods that forced seven schools into a lockdown mode Orazio Ryan Fava of Mooresville was found in an abandoned trailer near Tomahawk Lane in Mooresville and charged with murder WCNC the news partner identified the victim as 30-year-old James Nichols Jr Nichols was found shot to death Sunday WCNC reported WCNC video caught father confronting Fava as he was taken from the woods son tried to kill Fava said to the father pulled a gun on own a the father replied Iredell County Sheriffs Office deputies on Sunday and Monday arrested three other Mooresville residents in the case 22-ycar-old John Lowell Flcr-mansen 19-ycar-old James Stephen Small and 21-year-old Eugene Tywone Robinson All were charged with aiding and abetting By Taylor Bright tbnghtcharlotteobservercom The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that North Carolina must reply to a lawsuit filed by South Carolina seeking to prevent towns outside the Catawba River basin from taking its water North Carolina had permitted 10 million gallons of water a day from the Cataw'ba River to go to Concord and Kannapolis water that leaves the basin never to return Instead it goes to the Yadkin River Basin a basin twice as large as the Cataw'ba River basin The court ruled against South request for an injunction that would stop the transfers to Concord and Kannapolis Both the Catawba and the Yadkin flow into South SC Attorney General Henry McMastcr said this is the first step toward a resolution from the Supreme Court they accepted our McMastcr said should clear the way for them to accept the Under filing in the court normally assigns a special master often a retired federal judge to hear the case and make recommendations to the Supreme Court which can accept deny or amend the findings For Catawba River advocate Donna Lisenby who worked futilely to get North Carolina to halt the interbasin transfer the Supreme decision to allow the case this far was heartening feel Lisenby said Associated Press The Catawba Indian Nation suffered another setback Monday when the US Supreme Court rejected the SC bid to have video poker machines on its reservation The US Supreme Court refused without comment to hear the appeal of an SC Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that a state ban on video poker applies to tribal lands The tribe contended its 1993 settlement with the state entitled it to have video poker although the machines were outlawed seven years ago The state claimed the land deal subjects the tribe to state gambling laws The tribe has said it necessarily want video gambling machines on its reserva tion in York County But it hoped a favorable court ruling could be a bargaining chip in efforts to build a high-stakes bingo parlor in Santee between Columbia and Charleston along Interstate 95 Tribe attorney Jay Bender said the Cataw'bas will continue their decade-long effort to open a high-stakes bingo parlor tribe has to find economic development activities within the artificial constraints imposed by the Bender said The Catawbas have met opposition to a bingo hall in Santee and earlier in North Myrtle Beach CHURCH-STATE CASES REJECTED 4A I Challenges regarding birth control library use refused PREDECESSOR RESIGNED Mecklenburg names new director of human resources Concord council orders halt to work on drag strip conciliatory tone with council members and residents She said she hopes the company will get a chance to change minds really serious about addressing the concerns of the neighborhood and the Wilks said Several residents and workers with tics to drag-racing teams and to motorsports spoke at the meeting saying a drag strip would bring high-paying jobs and millions of dollars in needed tax revenues to Concord Smith started grading his land about a week ago but has not has not applied for required permits to build a drag strip The vote Monday changed the zoning on property to bar drag strips Last week Smith said city officials doing enough to back motorsports and threatened legal action if the council intervened in his project On Monday night though Lauri Wilks a spokeswoman for Motor Speedway and Speedway Motorsports struck a But the drag-strip supporters were easily outnumbered by residents of a subdivision about a mile away from the proposed strip Those residents said they worried their property values would drop and that noise from drag-racing cars would disturb their sleep like (drag strips) but I like them way out in a field said George Sprague a resident who lives about two miles north of the speedway very exciting but very he said Zoning could reverse the decision if the company provides them with more noise information is a way we can protect our citizens and put us in charge of the decision-making" Padgett said Speedway owner Bruton Smith in August announced plans to build the drag strip saying then that racing would begin next spring ultimately firing them Ganzlmar could not be reached for comment Monday Peek joined the county a year ago as a senior human resources manager Before joining the county Peek spent 11 years in the human resources department of the Salvation corporate headquarters in Atlanta and is a graduate of UNC Charlotte He will earn $120000 in his new job which oversees the needs of the nearly 5000 full-time workers EMILY ACHENBAUM Mecklenburg County has named Chris Peck its new director of human resources Peek replaces Frank Ganzl-mar who resigned in April Ganzlmar resigned the same month two former Department of Social Services employees sued the county saying they had been improperly fired after complaining about their supervisor In the suit the two employees accuse Ganzlmar of belittling them telling them a department head deserves total loyalty and.