Charlotte Observer----Charlotte Police knew slain teen might have been raped
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police knew for more than seven weeks that 15-year-old Tiffany Wright might have been the victim of statutory rape, but they didn't charge her alleged assailant until the pregnant teen was shot dead Monday.
Social workers reported to police on July 27 that Royce Mitchell might have sexually assaulted Tiffany, but police said they waited nearly four weeks to make any contact with Mitchell. A police official says a detective called Mitchell Aug. 20 and asked him to come in for an interview, but Mitchell declined.
Investigators never visited Mitchell or picked him up for questioning, but phoned him “multiple times,” said Capt. Pete Davis, who heads the sexual assault unit.
Mitchell, 36, was charged Monday with statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a child, and police said Tiffany was the victim of those crimes. Mitchell is also being questioned as a “person of interest” in Tiffany's homicide, police said.
The Hawthorne High junior, who was eight months pregnant, was shot in the head about 6 a.m. Monday as she waited for her school bus in her middle-income neighborhood off Mallard Creek Road in the Derita area.
Police also are looking into whether Mitchell is the father of Tiffany's child, who was saved by doctors Monday at Carolinas Medical Center. The baby was in critical condition Monday, but the hospital would not update her status Tuesday.
Tiffany was adopted into Royce Mitchell's family by his mother, Alma Wright. But she died in late January and the minor teen was left without a home.
Court records show Mitchell – who served time in federal prison for a drug crime – was awarded temporary legal guardianship of Tiffany in February. It's unclear whether court officials were aware of his criminal history.
But Tiffany was soon sent to foster care, after Mitchell failed a home study by DSS.
Police said they waited weeks to contact Mitchell about the rape allegation because they didn't believe Tiffany was in danger. She had been placed in a foster home, away from Mitchell, and there were no reports of threats against her, Davis said.
Sexual assault detectives are working 25 cases or more at a time and are strapped for time and resources, Davis said.
“If we had felt her life was in danger … that is the barometer we use,” he said. “It's not like it was the only case they're investigating.”
Police declined to say whether Tiffany was cooperating in the rape investigation.
North Carolina law defines statutory rape as having sex with a 13-, 14- or 15-year-old child who is at least six years younger than the accused.
Mecklenburg Department of Social Services wouldn't comment on the case or confirm whether Tiffany was ever in foster care.
But Davis said that on July 27, DSS told police that Tiffany had been raped and that Mitchell had sex with the underage teen twice.
Tiffany spent her early childhood in Buffalo, where she was born, and entered the foster care system at age 2 when her mother lost or gave up custody, according to Tiffany's cousin Brittany Page, 20.
At some point, Tiffany was adopted by Alma Wright and she became Tiffany Wright.
Page said she and her family in Buffalo lost contact with Tiffany until last year, when she reconnected with Tiffany on MySpace.com.
Court records show Alma Wright died Jan. 25 and that Tiffany moved into Royce Mitchell's house.
Five days after his mother's death, Mitchell asked the court to make him Tiffany's legal guardian. On Feb. 5, the court granted Mitchell temporary custody “for the purpose of enrolling Tiffany Wright in school, and to guard against any problem in obtaining medical care for Tiffany Wright.”
Assistant Clerk of Superior Court Frederick Benson ordered a home study before a permanent guardian was appointed.
Page says Tiffany confided in her that she'd gone to live with a “foster brother” but didn't name him. Tiffany wasn't happy with living with him, her cousin told the Observer Tuesday. “The only thing she told me was that they didn't get along,” Page said.
In June or July, Page said she learned Tiffany had been placed back into foster care. Tiffany's foster mother didn't allow her to talk to Page or other family members, Page said.
Page said she hadn't talked with Tiffany since she re-entered the foster care system. But in June, when they last spoke, Tiffany said she was pregnant and positive.
“She was happy,” said Page. “She was excited to have this baby. She wanted to be a good mother, something she never had.”
Murdered Pregnant student's baby delivered, still critical A Charlotte man accused of raping his adopted teenage sister turned himself in Monday and was being questioned in connection with her shooting death at a school bus stop, police said.
Royce Anthony Mitchell, 36, is a “person of interest” in the slaying of Tiffany Wright, 15, in north Charlotte, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman.
Tiffany, who was eight months pregnant and living in a foster home, was shot about 6 a.m. Monday while waiting to catch the bus to Hawthorne High School.
Medics rushed her to Carolinas Medical Center, where doctors were able to deliver her baby girl. Tiffany died at the hospital, and the baby was listed in critical condition.
Police issued warrants Monday against Mitchell for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor, based on their investigation into Tiffany's death. A police spokesman said Tiffany had been adopted into the Mitchell family, and was the victim of the alleged sex crimes.
Police were at Mitchell's home late Monday, as homicide detectives questioned him at police headquarters. Police also said they're looking into whether Mitchell is the father of Tiffany's baby.
Records show Mitchell has no criminal record in North Carolina. In 2008, his wife took out a restraining order against Mitchell, alleging domestic violence, but the case was dismissed.
Federal prison records show a Royce Mitchell, age 36, had been sentenced in 2002 to six years in prison for conspiring to sell drugs in Buffalo, N.Y. Charlotte police couldn't confirm whether that was the same man charged in Monday's case, but records show Mitchell previously lived in Buffalo.
Accounts in the Buffalo News in 2003 said Royce Mitchell was a quarterback for the semi-professional Buffalo Lancers football team before being busted on federal drug charges.
Mitchell was working for the city on a street maintenance crew, a spokesman said.
Monday's shooting occurred less than a block from Tiffany's apartment on Walnut Park Drive, off Mallard Creek Road. Witnesses said they heard several shots, police said.
Late Monday, five of Tiffany's friends visited the bus stop where she was shot in the head. They wept and hugged one another near the stop, marked by a single bouquet of flowers.
They described Tiffany as goofy and fun, and a good student. She ran track at Bessemer City High, where she previously attended school, and she liked to dance.
“She couldn't dance, but she loved to try,” said DeNeika Parker, 17.
Tiffany planned to name her baby Aaliyah and was excited about becoming a mother, said Tyanna Barnette, 16, who said she'd known Tiffany since the two were in middle school.
Tiffany was a junior at Hawthorne. Principal Tracey Pickard said Tiffany came to the school in August as a student in the TAPS program for pregnant students. She said the girl had impressed teachers.
“It was clear that Tiffany was academically strong and off to a good start,” Pickard said. She said the girl's teachers told her that Tiffany “was extremely focused.”
Students at Hawthorne remembered Tiffany as a smart, friendly girl who was always sweet.
“She always had a smile on her face,” said Cameron Blakeney, a sophomore who met her at the movies last summer. “She loved to joke. I'm like, devastated, like a lot of people,” Blakeney said. “We're all pretty torn up on the inside.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg school officials dispatched crisis teams Monday to counsel students who knew Tiffany. They said they will work with CMPD to increase police visibility at the bus stop and Hawthorne for the next few days.
Tiffany's grandmother, Shirley Boston, in Buffalo, was shocked and tearful when she learned of her granddaughter's death late Monday.
She spoke with her two weeks ago and was looking forward to helping care for her great-granddaughter. “I had my other granddaughter text her today (Monday) to say she didn't need to buy anything for the baby” because the family would take care of it, she said.
Boston said Tiffany spent several childhood years in Buffalo, where her father also lives.
She moved to the Charlotte area and went into foster care after her mother lost custody, Boston said. Mecklenburg County DSS officials would not confirm that Monday. The Observer was unable to reach Tiffany's foster mother.
Tiffany had managed to keep a positive outlook, despite the challenges in her life, said Ashelee Barber, who said she was the niece of Tiffany's foster mother. “She was just a very sweet girl,” said Barber. “When people go through tough times, they sometimes develop hateful feelings, but she wasn't that way.”
Audits turn up misspent money in programs for Foster Children, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg County DSS Officials can't account for $162,000 in donations. A probe of misspending at a
Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services Christmas charity has widened across the agency, and officials now say they are unable to say how much money may have disappeared over the years.
The county's second-largest agency, often a first stop for the community's poor or neglected, has recently been reorganized. Director Mary Wilson, hired last summer, ordered audits following reports of suspicious spending.
The audits looked at several spending programs and financial practices throughout the department.
Among the findings:Mecklenburg County officials cannot account for $162,000 in donations meant to buy gifts for needy children. That includes a $10,000 check made out to an employee.
Of the 840 receipts inspected for that program, 799 had problems, including receipts that were altered, whited out or omitted in photocopying.
In a separate year-round program, auditors said, money meant to help foster families buy clothes and other necessities for children was spent on office supplies.
The audits cover July 2007 through this past March, but officials say they don't know whether problems started earlier because the last departmentwide audit of DSS was in 1996. Some findings have been turned over to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Officials briefed county commissioners earlier this month about the audits.
But new details are emerging since officials gave a fuller account last week to the commission's audit review committee.
Committee members told county administrators they did not understand how the department failed to adhere to basic financial practices, such as requiring two signatures on checks – a standard spelled out in N.C. law.
Some asked how managers could have allowed such behavior to go unnoticed. The audit committee also appeared surprised that receipts for the department had not been checked for so many years.
Such a review was planned for next year, said Chris Waddell of the county's Internal Audit department, who said he thinks the problems cited in recent audits would have been uncovered.
When panel members asked county auditors and administrators to find out who is responsible for the problems, or how long they persisted, officials cast doubt on whether they could comply.
“There's a lot of missing documentation,” county Finance Director Dena Diorio told the committee.
On Friday, County Manager Harry Jones said officials would respond to problems laid out in the audits.
Overall, Jones said, DSS has been “well-managed,” especially in light of numerous changes in top management in recent years.
But with “an operation of that size it is difficult to be immune from problems,” he said. “We're going to address it and fix it. Hopefully, it won't be recurring.”
"Feel-good" programs:Officials said charity and emergency spending programs went unchecked by supervisors. Asked why, Wilson said people grew very trusting about “feel-good” programs. Diorio said the longtime programs simply escaped scrutiny.
County officials said some DSS programs were audited annually, but not smaller programs like the Giving Tree.
DSS spends more than $176million annually and employs about 1,200 workers.
Problems surfaced publicly this year when Wilson said she learned about irregular spending patterns in the agency's programs for poor families and foster children.
Wilson said an employee raised questions about money in the Giving Tree program. Wilson said she herself pointed to a need to audit the broader programs.
Since then, leaders have ordered multiple financial audits and suspended two workers suspected of taking $110,000 from the Giving Tree program, which solicits money to buy the holiday gifts.
Officials say they have asked Charlotte-Mecklenburg police to help investigate. One of the suspended workers has been cleared of wrongdoing and reinstated, while the other is now on medical leave. The county has not publicly identified the employees.
County officials say they are trying to determine whether there was criminal activity or just sloppy accounting.
In either case, commissioner Bill James said the findings show the county needs to re-examine how it keeps tabs on taxpayer money. James described the fiscal controls at DSS as “nonexistent.”
“There is a fundamental management control deficiency,” James said. “We have to find out why this lasted as long as it did.”
Ward Simmons, another member of the county audit committee, said there should be two goals. “Fix this for the future, and then this has to do with public confidence in the county: (identify) who's responsible for what happened in the past.”
But county administrators say they are not sure who should be held accountable.
A series of DSS directors:DSS has had four directors in recent years.
Longtime director Richard “Jake” Jacobsen took a medical leave in 2004 and was briefly replaced in the interim by then-deputy director Brenda Jackson. Jacobsen returned in 2005, only to be reassigned as an executive-in-residence at UNC Charlotte, where he started work in January 2008.
The county appointed another interim DSS director, Janice Allen Jackson, who was also one of the county's general managers.
Director Mary Wilson replaced her last July. Allen Jackson resigned in May for personal reasons.
As a general manager Allen Jackson was responsible for helping oversee DSS for four years. She also was interim director for six months.
Allen Jackson said she was not aware of any accounting failures during her tenure with the county. “No issues were brought to me,” she told the Observer before declining further comment.
Jacobsen worked for 13 years as head of the DSS. Through a county spokesman, Jacobsen declined to comment.
Jacobsen had named a senior-level administrator to oversee DSS finances during his tenure, but county leaders said the post later was vacated. Earlier this year, Wilson recreated the post, naming Angela Hurlburt as the department's director of financial management.
Jones praised Wilson for initiating the financial audit and said she had “clearly inherited this situation.”
“These are programs deliberately designed to operate outside the traditional DSS systems,” Jones said. He said Friday the emergency nature of the charity programs may have led to mistakes. Social workers often must act quickly to address such needs as clothing, housing and medicine.
A lax culture of accounting:County officials described a lax culture at DSS about accounting procedures.
In some cases, Wilson said, social workers made expenditures without their supervisor's approval. Other times, she said, supervisors did not document approvals for expenses.
Officials say they are unsure whether employees were trained to properly carry out the department's financial policies.
“People who work anywhere need to know what the expectations are,” said John McGillicuddy, county general manager. “And when you know that they've been given those expectations and clear terms ... you can hold them accountable. Part of our challenge is going to be who should have known that these were their responsibility.”
McGillicuddy said county management and DSS directors bear some responsibility in making sure the county is effectively managing the public's money. But he said he thinks that if any of the previous DSS directors knew a problem was occurring, that it would have been addressed.
Officials said they have already addressed issues in the audits, including the need to process all checks through the county finance department and new training for DSS workers on accounting procedures. But the audit panel and county staff said they'd like more investigation.
Commissioner Dan Murrey said the challenge will be infusing the agency with a new culture.
“There are policies and procedures and the way we've always done things,” he said. “In a sound organization those two things are closer together.”
Auditors Found Altered DSS ReceiptsAuditors found numerous problems with a Christmas charity run by the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services.
The now-defunct Giving Tree program collected gifts and donations for children in the county's foster care system
The Giving Tree audit, which triggered an agency-wide probe, found:
- No receipts for a $10,000 check made out to an employee.
- For the remaining $152,289 disbursed, $138,978 in receipt copies were provided.
- Of those 840 receipts, 799 had problems, including:
- Parts of receipts whited out, or omitted in photocopying.
- Altered dates.
- Gift card misuse.
- Multiple submissions of altered receipts.
Editorial: Financial Debacle At DSS Cries For CHANGE
Rarely do we agree with Mecklenburg County commissioner Bill James. But he's on the money about findings of misspending and possible theft in the county Department of Social Services.
James said the findings show the county needs to re-examine how it keeps tabs on taxpayer money. He added: “There is a fundamental management control deficiency.”
Indeed. A probe sparked by an employee tip about mishandled money in a county Christmas charity program has now engulfed the entire DSS. Incredibly, management was so lax officials admit they can't say how much money is missing.
But we do know what audits ordered by DSS Director Mary Wilson has uncovered. Among the findings:
County officials cannot account for $162,000 in donations meant to buy gifts for needy children. That includes a $10,000 check made out to an employee.
Of the 840 receipts inspected for that program, 799 had problems, including receipts that were altered, whited out or omitted in photocopying.
Money meant to help foster families buy clothes and other necessities for children was spent on office supplies.
The commissioners' audit review committee got a detailed account of the audit findings recently. The members seemed flabbergasted at what they heard.
DSS failed to adhere to basic financial practices such as requiring two signatures on check – spelled out in N.C. law.
DSS has not been fully audited since 1996. That's more than a decade.
DSS documentation is missing, so it may be difficult to find out who is responsible for the problems, or how long they persisted, county administrators said.
This debacle sounds like a skit from the bumbling Three Stooges. When the public's money is involved – especially when it's charitable donations for the needy – that's a horrifying notion. The people responsible must be held accountable, and policies and procedures changed.
We don't minimize the difficulty. Four people have headed DSS in the last five years. County Manager Harry Jones hired Wilson last summer. He praised her for ordering the audits, and said she “clearly inherited this situation.”
Part of that inheritance was charity and emergency programs that went unchecked, she said, because supervisors viewed them as sacred cows. Bad idea. Another was a culture of lax and sloppy accounting. County officials say they aren't sure whether employees were ever trained to properly carry out the department's financial policies. Say what?!!
These problems are serious. Those at fault deserve more than a slap on the wrist and a training manual. We're glad the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are helping investigate. If workers broke the law, they should be prosecuted. Those who did their jobs poorly should be fired.
Jones said the county will address the problems and fix them. For DSS to maintain the public's trust, the county must. View Larger MapSources: Charlotte Observer, Paper Trail, Charmeck.org, Creepygif.com, Google Maps
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