Actions Of Fired Charlotte Police Officer Destroys Public Trust

3rd Woman Accuses Fired Charlotte Police Officer; Police Chief Says Checks Failed


A third woman is accusing police officer Marcus Jackson of sexually assaulting her during a bogus traffic stop, and police admitted Tuesday they botched a background check that should have prevented Jackson from becoming an officer.

Also on Tuesday, a 17-year-old girl and a witness in the assaults reported last week described two separate encounters with Jackson, who was fired last week and is now in jail.

The teen told the Observer that Jackson ordered her into his patrol car during a traffic stop, drove her to another location and sexually assaulted her.

"I was terrified...," she said. "I was thinking about ways to get out, but the back doors were locked."

At a news conference Tuesday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe said Jackson, 25, should never have been hired in 2008 because of a 2005 domestic violence incident.

Monroe didn't explain how the police department's background checks missed the 2005 complaint and restraining order granted by a judge in that case. But he said it was "not very efficient work."

A police source, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to talk about the case, also said that Jackson was twice recommended for suspensions over incidents that occurred before the alleged attacks on the women. One incident involved allegations that Jackson was speeding, the source said, and the other incident involved allegations that he broke into his estranged wife's apartment.

Police have repeatedly declined to spell out details of Jackson's discipline history, although Monroe acknowledged that Jackson had been disciplined for speeding.

Police have also refused to release written incident reports about the sexual assaults but have twice held news conferences to lay out allegations against Jackson.

Police have also declined to release the exact location of the assaults, but have said two occurred in the Eastway Division that Jackson patrolled. It stretches from the Belmont neighborhood near uptown to just beyond Eastland Mall.

Meanwhile, Mecklenburg prosecutors said Tuesday they may have to dismiss more than 50 criminal and traffic cases that Jackson was involved in. They are reviewing all cases in which Jackson was the primary witness.

Said Monroe: "Everything he touched is ... jeopardized."

Jackson's most recent accuser says he assaulted her on two occasions, according to Monroe.

Monroe said Jackson stopped the woman on Nov. 2 and fondled her during an unlawful search, according to their investigation. Jackson again stopped the woman on Dec. 29 and again fondled her, Monroe said.

During the second stop, a male companion tried to intervene by challenging the traffic stop, and then tried to call 911. But Jackson interrupted the emergency call, Monroe said, and unlawfully arrested the man for obstructing and delaying a police officer. Those charges have since been dropped, and the man has been released from jail.

Jackson is charged in the latest reported case with two counts of sexual battery, one count of felonious restraint and one count of interfering with an emergency communication, police said.

Jackson was initially arrested and charged Dec. 30 after two other women accused him of sexually assaulting them in the weeks before.

In both cases, police say, Jackson pulled the women over on traffic stops, while on duty in his marked patrol car.

The first reported case involved the 17-year-old girl. She told the Observer that Jackson stopped her about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 18 near 10th Street and Seigle Avenue close to uptown.

"He told me I looked like a suspicious driver," the teen said.

When she told Jackson she didn't have a driver's license, she said he ordered her into his patrol car and began driving around.

"He told me he didn't want to take me home if I would get in trouble with my parents," she said.

Then, she said: "He just asked me for a favor. ... He asked me for sex, and did whatever he was gonna do. Then he told me I could go."

The girl declined to give details of the alleged assault, but an arrest warrant says Jackson forced her to perform oral sex.

The teen says she has been too afraid to leave her house since the incident.

"I haven't actually been doing anything," she said. "I've been terrified of running into him."

The second reported incident involved a 21-year-old woman and her male companion.

Police say Jackson stopped their car Dec. 28 and sexually assaulted her.

Reached by the Observer on Tuesday, the male companion involved in the incident said Jackson stopped the couple about 2 a.m. After asking for their identification, Jackson told them to follow him to a nearby apartment complex, where he demanded to frisk the woman. She asked for a female officer.

"He said 'No. If you don't let me check you, I'm going to arrest your boyfriend and take him to jail,'" according to the male companion.

"She said, 'I don't want you to arrest him,'" he said.

The companion said he saw Jackson touching his friend's breasts, and that when she returned to the car, she told him that Jackson wanted her to take off her dress but she refused.

In connection with those incidents, Jackson was charged with three counts of sexual battery, second-degree sexual offense, kidnapping, extortion, indecent exposure and felonious restraint.

At Tuesday's news conference, Monroe continued to urge the public, as well as any other victims, to contact police if they information.

Monroe said he's investigating how the department's background checks failed in the Jackson case.

Police said they were aware when they hired Jackson in 2008 that he had been accused of domestic violence in 2003. In that complaint, the mother of a 15-year-old girl Jackson was dating wrote that Jackson had threatened her daughter, pushed her into a locker and tried to hit her with a car.

It's unclear whether those allegations should have prevented Jackson from being hired, but police noted that he was found not guilty of violating the protective order in that case and that his arrest record had been expunged.

Police said they were not aware of the 2005 domestic violence incident.

In that complaint, Jackson's then-girlfriend claimed, "The defendant grabbed me by the face several times, screaming and yelling. ..."

"The defendant hit me in the back of the head, slapped my face, pushed me down in the floor, forcing (me) in (a) walk-in closet," she wrote in the complaint.

A judge in that case ordered Jackson not to own or carry a firearm during the two weeks of the restraining order.

Monroe said Jackson would not have been hired if police had known about the 2005 incident.

"The information was there for us to see," Monroe said. "It concerns me greatly."













Accused, Fired Charlotte Police Officer Stared, Followed Her Down Road>


The third woman accusing Charlotte police officer Marcus Jackson of sexual assault says he pulled up beside her as she headed home from work, and stared at her for three blocks as they drove side-by-side down Eastway Drive.

"He kept looking at me," she said Wednesday, crying. "He kept looking at me."

Then, she says, he turned on his lights and pulled her over. Jackson ordered her out of her car and grabbed at her breasts, she says.

About eight weeks later, on Dec. 29, the 37-year-old Mexican woman says she was driving home at the same time, along the same route. Again Jackson appeared, this time pulling in behind her as she parked near her apartment.

Her boyfriend, Abel, arrived at the same time. He says he tried to call for help when the officer began frisking her, and Jackson arrested him. The charges were dropped, but Abel may be deported.

Jackson was initially arrested and charged Dec. 30 in connection with alleged assaults on two other women, one of whom is also Latino. Those alleged assaults also happened during traffic stops.

Jackson appeared in court Wednesday to face four new charges in the third case.

Mecklenburg District Judge Hugh Lewis told Jackson that if he can post his $423,000 bond, he will be placed under electronic monitoring and 24-hour house arrest.

Mecklenburg Public Defender Kevin Tully, who has assigned a staff attorney to defend Jackson, said Wednesday: "There have been statements by public officials on the front page of the newspaper expressing their opinions that he's guilty of these charges. That threatens the integrity of the system, which is a person is innocent unless proven guilty."

With two of Jackson's accusers being Latinos, some members of that community say some police prey on immigrants because they may be in the country illegally.

"The police take advantage of the fact that so many of us are afraid," said Marco Rodriguez, a landscape worker in East Charlotte. "The possibility of deportation prevents us from speaking out."

Other Latinos applaud Chief Rodney Monroe's handling of the case. They're encouraging the chief to root out officers who may abuse power.

Police declined to answer specific questions about the Latino community's concerns about police treatment.

Latino leaders say the case hurts police efforts to bridge ties with a community that doesn't fully trust them.

Monroe, as part of his 2009 strategic plan, launched a campaign to repair what he called the "damaged" relationship between the groups. He met with Latino media and organized community meetings that other officers attended.

Many immigrants see the police as an arm of immigration enforcement.

While police are not directly involved with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's 287(g) program that identifies illegal immigrants, police make the vast majority of arrests that lead to deportations through the program.

Jorge Medina, co-host of "La Voz de Charlotte" on Radio Formula (1310-AM), said listeners want Monroe to take steps to stop any police abuses.

"Hopefully this will raise the standard of police work when dealing with Latinos," he said.

Jordan Forsythe, a Charlotte immigration attorney, said she's looking through her list of clients to see if any were arrested by Jackson.

If she finds any, Forsythe said she'll file for a U-Visa, which is designed to give crime victims temporary legal status and work eligibility in the United States.

At the Dec. 29 traffic stop, Abel, 29, said he confronted Jackson, and the officer ordered him to go into the apartment while he questioned his friend. Abel said he called 911 when he says the officer began frisking his friend.

"I dialed the number," said Abel, who asked that his last name not be used because of his immigration status, "but he grabbed the phone before I could say anything."

Jackson unlawfully arrested Abel on a charge of resisting a public officer, authorities said.

Abel spent six days in jail. The charges were dropped, but he was run through 287(g) and found to be undocumented. He said he lost his job because his boss didn't believe he had been wrongly jailed.

The sheriff's department said immigration officials told Abel he will have to appear before an immigration judge.

Forsythe, who isn't involved in Abel's case, says Abel could be eligible for a U-Visa, but he still faces deportation.

"Once you get to the jail," she says, "you can't unring the immigration bell."

Despite Jackson's arrest, the 37-year-old woman blames herself for Abel's legal problems.

And she still fears the police and Jackson's release.

"He recognized me and my truck ...," she said. "He knows where I live. He followed me here."












Royce Mitchell Fired From Charlotte City Job


Royce Anthony Mitchell, named as a “person of interest” in the shooting death of 15-year-old Tiffany Wright on Monday, has been fired from his job with the City of Charlotte, city officials said Wednesday.

Mitchell, who has been charged with statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor, had worked in the Charlotte Department of Transportation.

Kim McMillan of the City of Charlotte said Wednesday morning that “after administrative review, the City of Charlotte has terminated the employment of Royce Mitchell for falsifying his employment application, which is in violation of city policy.”

Mitchell, who was hired by the city in 2007, earned $25,808 annually with the street maintenance department, McMillan said.

McMillan did not say in what way Mitchell falsified his employment application, but city officials said Wednesday that as a result of the Mitchell case, they plan to expand background checks to include a search of federal offenses around the country. Mitchell served time in a federal prison on drug charges.

Until now, city officials' criminal background checks have included local and state records, and federal records in the Justice Department's Western North Carolina District.

Wright, who was eight months pregnant, was shot in the head Monday morning while waiting for a school bus.

Police are trying to determine if Mitchell was the father of the baby, who was delivered by doctors and is still alive.



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