GOP lawmakers demand records on Charlotte child abuse case, concerning lawyers
State lawmakers want Charlotte and Mecklenburg County officials to hand over records about six-year-old Dominique Moody’s death.
The request could deprive people charged in the case of a fair trial, a defense attorney said.
Moody was found dead, covered in scars and severely malnourished in her aunt’s east Charlotte home last year. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and the county’s social services department received numerous reports about the home before she died. Three women face first-degree murder charges in the case.
The state’s House Oversight and Reform Committee wants to review “recent developments relating to the death of Dominique Moody, including the apparent failure of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department” to properly investigate the home, said an April 9 letter signed by three committee co-chairs and sent to Chief Estella Patterson.
State Rep. Allen Chesser, a Nash County Republican, sent a similar letter individually to the county social services department’s interim director that same day.
Lawmakers want correspondence between the departments, reports, body camera recordings and more. CMPD said in an email Monday that the department is “working to be responsive to the request.” DSS did not respond to a request for comment.
Lawyers concerned by request
Attorneys representing women charged in Moody’s death have asked a judge to block lawmakers from seeing records tied to the case.
The main concern, one defense attorney said, is that the case could become even more publicized and politicized, denying his client a fair trial.
“I don’t want my client to be a political football (for) the Republicans in Raleigh and their perceived grievances towards Mecklenburg County,” said Tim Emry, who is representing Moody’s aunt, Tonya McKnight, charged with murder in the case. “They can feel whatever they want to feel about the way things are done in Mecklenburg County, but my client shouldn’t have to suffer as a result of their grandstanding.”
Another attorney representing a second defendant in the case, Tery’n McKnight, drafted and filed their own emergency motion with the same request, Emry said.
Emry, who previously ran for district attorney in Mecklenburg County as a Democrat, said he expected lawmakers to zero in on “salacious” details if they did get the records, and for the press to report those details.
Republicans in Raleigh have taken a particular interest in Charlotte since DeCarlos Brown Jr. was charged in the killing of Iryna Zarutska on a city train last year. The case drew the attention of conservatives across the country.
United States District Judge Kenneth Bell blocked the General Assembly from getting records on Brown earlier this year, and wrote in a Feb. 11 order that his obligation was “to protect the integrity of this federal criminal proceeding and to safeguard the dignity and privacy of the victim’s family and potential witnesses.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.