Share
A man just released from prison was re-arrested after being charged in a 12-year-old kidnapping and sex offense case, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Thursday.
Johnny William Bell, 29, of Charlotte, is charged with kidnapping and second-degree sex offense after forensic evidence implicated him in a May 1997 case.
A 29-year-old woman told police then that she was walking on Boone Street near Oaklawn Avenue in west Charlotte when an unknown man pulled up to her and forced her into his vehicle. He threatened her with a knife, drove her to a remote location and sexually assaulted her before forcing her out of the car.
Officers completed the investigation just days before Bell's release date. He was picked up at a prison facility in Hoffman as he completed his sentence and taken to Mecklenburg jail.
Bell was there Thursday night on $75,000 bond. His first court appearance on the new charges is today at 1 p.m. -- Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Meck briefs
Charlotte
Becki Gray, the John Locke Foundation's vice president for outreach, will give a legislative update June 4 to the Piedmont Freedom Club at Queens University of Charlotte.
The program in Sykes Auditorium runs from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The foundation says Sykes will give a legislative update and “explain how the General Assembly really works, who the power players are, and why it matters.”
The program is free but registration is required. E-mail Melissa Mitchell at mmitchell@johnlocke.org. -- Jim Morrill
Regional briefs
Wilkes County
Wilkesboro
N.C. highway engineers are working on a plan to repair a huge sinkhole that took out part of a highway after flooding undermined the road.
Officials said they hoped to have a plan developed by Thursday to repair the sinkhole on U.S. 421 in Wilkesboro. Heavy rain washed away soil and created the sinkhole that is 50 feet deep, 25 feet wide and 150 feet long.
Transportation Department engineer Charles Reinhardt says soil experts will recommend ways to repair the hole in the southbound lanes.
About 30,000 vehicles a day use the highway and only one southbound lane is open. -- Associated Press
A Senate bill requiring N.C. school districts to approve more detailed anti-bullying policies is moving ahead in the House.
The House Education Committee recommended the measure Thursday.
Districts would have to create policies that at a minimum list perceived characteristics of a person likely to be bullied. The list is laid out in the bill, which next goes to a House judiciary panel.
Alison Davis of Durham says the bill would protect her three sons, each of whom have autism and are teased harshly at school.
The Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League of North Carolina said he was bullied as a child. But Creech and other opponents are upset the required list would give special protection to specific groups, particularly gays and lesbians. -- Associated Press
South Carolina
Columbia
Craigslist has withdrawn its request that South Carolina's attorney general be temporarily prevented from pursuing prostitution-related charges against the company.
Attorney General Henry McMaster spokesman Trey Walker said Thursday that Craigslist chief executive Jim Buckmaster abandoned the bid after the prosecutor agreed not to charge executives while a federal lawsuit proceeds.
Buckmaster sued last week after McMaster threatened to prosecute Craigslist executives if ads on the site lead to an S.C. prostitution case.
Buckmaster says McMaster's allegations have violated executives' constitutional rights. Walker says those issues will be discussed at a July 22 hearing.
Craigslist attorneys did not immediately respond to messages Thursday seeking comment. -- Associated Press
