In heartbreaking cases, these Charlotte courthouse champions made all the difference
A baby was saved from her violent mother. A struggling pregnant woman wasn’t alone in an ambulance. A series of cold-case assaults — after 30 years — ended in convictions.
All that was made possible by people inside the Mecklenburg County Courthouse.
Mecklenburg District Attorney Spencer Merriweather in December awarded three Charlotte community members for the acts that modeled “a safe and vibrant community where every person can live in peace,” Merriweather wrote in a news release.
Rhamonda Blackmon’s friend in 2016 decided she “wouldn’t or couldn’t care for” Bree, her newborn daughter. So Blackmon took her in, raising her as her own for three years, from newborn to toddler.
Then Bree’s mother decided she wanted her back. Blackmon obliged. Within a month, homicide detectives were knocking on Blackmon’s door.
Bree was alive, but she was so severely abused that “she couldn’t hold a pencil, turn the pages of a book, or walk long distances without the aid of a walker or stroller,” according to the news release. Her mother would soon be convicted of felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.
Blackmon, in the aftermath of the abuse, “signed up to adopt Bree with no hesitation.”
When Bree’s mother in 2019 “demanded Bree back,” Blackmon had “pleaded that she be allowed to see her at holidays, bring her presents, and take her to Disney World,” according to the news release.
Bree’s biological mother denied her those opportunities.
Now Blackmon, as Bree’s adoptive mother, takes Bree to occupational therapy, physical therapy, and medical appointments.
A case now solved
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Detective Michael Melendez in May helped prosecutors try two cold cases at the same time, which led to a serial rapist’s life sentence three decades after he committed his crimes.
LJ Bertha, now 64, raped two women on Charlotte dead-end roads in 1993 and 1994. Detectives at the time took DNA samples, but testing technology couldn’t confirm Bertha as the suspect until 2023.
Melendez, who has worked at CMPD for 24 years, “comes to every guilty plea and sentencing that he can attend,” according to Merriweather’s release. “His commitment to following through on his cases does not end at arrest. He is invested in these cases and supporting these survivors and most of his career has been devoted to this work — hard work to do year after year.”
Helping in a difficult moment
A young pregnant woman walked into a Mecklenburg County Courthouse courtroom with Lindsay Harris, a woman who works with domestic violence survivors through Safe Alliance.
The pregnant woman was about to testify to get a domestic violence protective order. Then Harris, a mother herself, “noticed something was off.”
The woman “was having acute pain and became ill and passed out,” according to Merriweather’s release.
Harris called an ambulance, got the survivor water, and remained with her, “comforting her through what was surely one of the worst days of the woman’s life,” Merriweather wrote.
Then Harris climbed in the ambulance with the woman, who was “alone and scared.”
Once at the hospital, Harris remained by her side.
