Former CMPD Officer Phillip Barker Trial To Begin Monday

Yesterday the "Local Paper" regurgitated some of their earlier reporting on a CMPD Officer Involved Pedestrian Death from five years ago.

In July 2017, two lives headed in different directions intersected south of uptown Charlotte at more than 100 mph. In an instant, James Michael Short was dead, his body thrown more than the length of a football field down Morehead Street after being struck by the patrol car driven by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Phillip Barker.

Barker, who was responding to a pre-dawn report of a wreck nearby, was traveling at almost three times the posted speed limit of 35 mph. Next week, the two men’s lives will cross once again, this time in a Mecklenburg County courtroom.

On Dec. 5, Barker will become the first CMPD officer in more than seven years to be tried on criminal charges tied to an on-duty death. The now 29-year-old is charged with involuntary manslaughter, a felony, and two counts of misdemeanor death by vehicle in connection with the collision that killed Short on July 8, 2017. If convicted of all charges, Barker faces a maximum sentence of more than five years in prison.

In a real sense, Barker’s attorneys are expected to put Short on trial, too — specifically, his actions during his last hours of life that left large amounts of drugs and alcohol in his body, which may have impaired his judgment and contributed to his death. 

In fact, the lawyers say Short, a 28-year-old computer student at Central Piedmont Community College, had drunk so much at a South End bar that night that he had been ordered to leave. 

Short crossed Morehead “despite having three marked CMPD patrol vehicles traveling in his direction with blue lights and sirens activated,” Michael Greene, a member of Barker’s Charlotte-based defense team, said previously. 

Asked last week by The Local Paper if he believes drugs and alcohol contributed to Short’s death, Greene declined to comment. The trial could take up to two weeks. The defense team, which also includes George Laughrun, plans to call more than 20 witnesses. 

Barker will be tried by Bill Bunting and Glenn Cole, two of the most veteran homicide prosecutors in the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office. 

Officer Barker has deep ties to the police department. His father is a retired CMPD sergeant while his mother is a former magistrate who still works at the department in a civilian position. Barker has been on unpaid administrative leave since his arrest.

He was originally charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle. In December 2017, however, the District Attorney’s Office took the case before a grand jury, which returned the far more serious involuntary manslaughter indictment. 

At the time of Barker’s arrest, then Police Chief Kerr Putney described the officer’s driving speed as “excessive,” and said it was the determining factor in the department’s decision to bring charges. 

Putney said CMPD officers are allowed to speed when their emergency lights are on but only if they do so with the safety of others in mind. “Sometimes with youth, you don’t have the experience,” he said of Barker, who was 24 at the time and had joined CMPD 18 months earlier.

Greene says his client should never have been arrested or indicted. He told the Observer last week that Short’s death was an accident, not the legal grounds for criminal charges. “When the jury sees the evidence in its totality,” he said, “they will certainly see that this was not a crime.”

EXCESSIVE SPEED VS. DRUGS, ALCOHOL 

In one regard, the jury’s verdict could hinge on what set of numbers receive the most weight. Prosecutors say Barker was driving recklessly on July 8, 2017, when he blasted south down Morehead Street at 3:30 a.m. while responding to a “priority one” call of a car crashing into a building on Kings Drive in which the driver possibly had been ejected. 

CP Notes the Local Paper's use of "blasted south down Morehead"

Barker was one of three officers who raced toward the reported wreck. He was traveling at more than 100 mph when he raced down the hill by the Dowd YMCA toward Euclid Avenue. That’s where Short was crossing the street.

Barker had the green light, and his emergency lights and siren were on. Prosecutors and Barker’s defense team disagree on whether Short was walking in the Morehead Street crosswalk or near it. Short had been drinking at The Bar at 316 in South End. His blood-alcohol level at the time of his death ranged from .24 to .30, at least three times the legal limit for driving while impaired. 

His autopsy also showed that Short had ingested what the N.C. Medical Examiner’s office considers to be a “toxic” amount of Xanax, a powerful anti-depressant that affects the brain and central nervous system, particularly when combined with alcohol. 

MANSLAUGHTER TRIALS AND COPS 

Criminal charges against Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are rare; charges involving on-duty homicides are rarer still. Barker is the city’s first police defendant in a manslaughter trial since Randall “Wes” Kerrick, who was charged in connection with the September 2013 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell. 

Kerrick shot the unarmed Ferrell 10 times after the former college football player ran toward him during an early morning confrontation east of Charlotte. Kerrick’s 2015 trial ended in a hung jury with eight of the 12 members voting to acquit. The charges were later dropped, and Kerrick left the force. 

In 2009, CMPD officer Martray Proctor pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to three years’ probation after his police cruiser struck a car driven by 20-year-old Shatona Robinson, who died at the scene. Proctor was traveling as fast as 111 mph in a 45 mph zone and did not have his siren on. 

The Kerrick and Barker cases share at least three similarities. Greene and Laughrun also represented Kerrick. Meanwhile, the Barker trial will be heard by Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin, who also was on the bench for Kerrick. 

In both cases the City of Charlotte agreed to pay large settlements to the dead men’s families long before the trials. In Ferrell’s case, the check was for $2.25 million.

 After the trial, the city also paid Kerrick about $180,000 in return for his resignation. 

In March 2019, the city settled with Short’s family for $950,000, the Observer reported at the time. 

Nationally, fatal collisions between emergency vehicles and pedestrians occur every other day, according to the National Safety Council. In 2020, 180 people died in crashes involving emergency vehicles, with police cars accounting for 132 of the fatalities. Pedestrians made up a quarter (45) of the overall deaths.

CP's Take: This is just another reason why CMPD is understaffed, can't recruit, or retain Officers. Baker was wrong, but contributory negligence in this case far out weighs Baker's actions which were conducted without malice or intent. The Meck DA's office should have shit canned this case years ago. 

Speed is relative given the facts including the level of intoxication of the victim and questions regarding who provided him with that level of alcohol and drugs there seems plenty of blame to go around.

Starbucks Labels Black Woman's Drink "Monkey"

This is pretty darn funny. I get it there are racist people out there. Mean spirited and hateful people, but does it really need to make national news? This from NBC's Today:

A Maryland woman is speaking out after a Starbucks barista wrote her name as "Monkey" while taking her order.

Monique Pugh tells TODAY.com that she has been a loyal Starbucks customer for 20 years. On Nov. 19, she said, she visited the location inside the Annapolis, Maryland, mall and ordered a venti Caramel Frappuccino.

"The lady at the register asked my name and I told her, and that was it," she said, noting that she used the Starbucks app to pay and verbally told the woman working her name was "Monique."

Pugh said it was a long wait for her drink and she observed that everyone ahead of her was called by their name.

"I can see from a distance, a barista picks up (my) drink and she looks at it weird, says 'venti Caramel Frap' and backed away."

Pugh says she picked up the cup and saw the word "Monkey" on it.

"My heart just drops," she says. "It was one of those in-the-moment things where your heart just drops and you’re just like, 'What?'"

Despite the distressing word on her cup, Pugh says, she initially just engaged with the nearest barista, a male, to try to get him to fix her drink, which was made incorrectly. She says he was immediately "very combative and argumentative."

"He and I were going back and forth about whether the drink was made correctly and then I had to stop myself and realized 'monkey' was written on my cup," she says, adding she was the only Black person in the store at the time.

By now you're thinking oh that's way wrong? Right? Well Today isn't done with you as you have to scroll past endless pop up ads. To continue to read this bizarre tale you have to keep scrolling and clicking. Keep in mind that Today.com where this story is posted has ad placements every couple of sentences.

She says she asked the employee, "Why am I the only Black person in the store and 'monkey' is written on my cup?"

Pugh says the male barista shrugged and told her it was a mistake.

"Just with that attitude and his response, oh it’s so triggering," she says. "Customers were looking at me and I was just embarrassed."

Pugh says the male barista didn't apologize but refunded her for the drink.

A Starbucks corporate representative confirms the incident occurred and tells TODAY.com the employee who took the order had been suspended. They also say that the store where the incident happened was a franchisee, owned by a company called Impeccable Brands.

The Starbucks representative says Impeccable Brands also initiated a third party investigation and promised additional diversity and inclusion trainings for staff.

He adds that the corporate team had reached out "directly to apologize for her experience" and to have a sit-down meeting. Pugh confirms the regional director had emailed her but had not yet responded as of Wednesday, Nov. 30, to her note about available dates for a sit-down meeting.

OMG her name was mispronounced. The horror! But what about the typing of MONIQUE vs MONKEY? Typo? Maybe? Sloppy? Maybe? M-O-N and then I and opps K is closer to m&n than I and Q and E are only separated by W and and y&u are next to each other.

Pugh says she left the store the day of the incident and immediately called customer service. She says the general manager of the local store first contacted her and mispronounced her first name, Monique, in a voicemail.

"This is not a small complaint, it’s not like my coffee was cold or I was missing my croissant," she says. "And you couldn’t even leave a message without mispronouncing my name."

She says the manager touted his staff's diversity and cited his own Hispanic heritage when saying he understood her frustrations.

Pugh says he offered to compensate her with a free drink from Starbucks and one free sandwich.

"I declined it … because that offer felt disrespectful," she says. "It was disrespectful that he’d say as a Hispanic male he understood and then offered me that."

Pugh says the owner of the store then contacted her and apologized, only to then say the team had concluded the incident "wasn't intentional."

She says the store owner also confirmed the suspended barista, who she believes to be white and a native English speaker, had completed the company's anti-bias training.

In an email forwarded by Starbucks' corporate team to TODAY.com, Amit Sehgal from Impeccable Brands apologized to Pugh but made similar statements to Pugh's recollections.

"While we have investigated the incident and believe that our employee mistakenly labeling your cup in this way, regardless, I understand the hurt and frustration this has caused you," Sehgal wrote. "We can do better. As an immediate step, I have taken action with the employee and have addressed their behavior with them directly."

Seriously I had to use spell check to type Monique.

Sehgal also says "monkey" would not be allowed to be printed on Starbucks drink tickets and that employees would be subject to additional training.

"With these steps in place, I feel confident that we will do better and offer the warm and welcoming experience that you and all other customers expect from any of our locations in the future," Sehgal concluded in his note to Pugh. "While I know none of this will be able to take away the hurt you may have felt that day and the days following, I hope that our actions show that we take this very seriously and value what you have shared."

The Starbucks corporate spokesperson confirms to TODAY.com that the word “monkey” has been removed from their system company-wide as a possible name for an order. When asked, he says there are other “profanities” that are also not allowed to be used as names but wasn’t sure exactly which ones.

Let's be serious Chip is not hard to spell but at Starbucks it comes back Skip a lot.

Pugh told TODAY.com the whole situation has been "very overwhelming."

"And to have them apologize, but then say it was an honest mistake and a labeling error? How was that a labeling error?" she asks. "I was the only Black person in the store. And I bring it to your attention and your first thought is to argue with me?"

She says someone had emailed her boss at work to complain about her after her story appeared on other news outlets.

"(The email) said I was the reason that that Starbucks employee was fired and I should know what it’s like to be fired because of a race hoax," she says, noting that the employee wasn't actually fired. "However, I am the victim in this situation, that was written on my cup! To ask for the victim to be fired…I can’t even express to you what it felt like to hear my manager read that email aloud to me."

Pugh says she has been “traumatized” by the incident.

If you are traumatized by having your frap labeled MONKEY you need serious help.

“I think what made it worse was the events following after. It wasn’t helpful,” she says. “If anything, it hurt me even more.”

Going forward, Pugh says she still really wants to hear from the corporate team and encouraged others to "speak up."

"This whole situation, you really have to speak up because companies, they’ll pledge millions to make it seem like they’re helping people and minorities but when something like this comes up they’ll try to sweep it under the rug," she says. "It’s a hypocrisy. That’s not OK. All I have to say is that people really need to speak up, especially when they know something is wrong, when they’ve been disrespected."

For purposes of transparency. I've never ordered a venti caramel frappuccino at Starbuck or anywhere else. Coffee two creams no sugar. 

How about we stop with this finger pointing racist bs?

I have a neighbor here name is Karen. She's crazy attractive late 40's tall thin super sweet always nice to talk to and a great neighbor. But her name is Karen. Can you imagine the tremendous pain she feels ordering a venti caramel frap at Starbucks and the label on her drink says K-A-R-E-N?

Tyquawon Parker Arrested in the murder of Ahylea Willard

It took CMPD more than a month to find Tyquawon Parker and charge him the homicide that occurred at an east Charlotte apartment complex last month.

Tyquawon Parker Photo MCSO

On October.23 at around 11:15 a.m., a woman was found shot and killed on Snow Lane at the Heritage Park Apartments. Police said officers were called for a welfare check when they found someone who had been shot.

MEDIC said Ahylea Willard, 32, died at the scene. Officers confirmed Willard was found behind a dumpster at the apartments.

Parker was arrested on Monday by CMPD and Guilford County Law Enforcement in Guilford County.

Parker was convicted of armed robbery in 2018 and sentenced to only 4 years and 10 months in prison. He was released on June 23, 2021 and was placed on supervised release for one year. He was released in June of this year, four months before he killed Willard.

Charlotte's Worst Eyesores

Axios Charlotte asked what are the ugliest places in Charlotte. Not surprisingly Dee Dee Harris' Hole aka Quail Hollow Hole took top honors.

From Axios: One spot in particular received the most responses: The vast, undeveloped and overgrown yet prominent pit down Park Road near Quail Hollow.

Backstory: The property on Gleneagles has been owned by Dee-Dee Harris and Harris Land Co. since the early 1990s. Plans for the property have been proposed several times over the years — including to add high-end tenants like a Saks Fifth Avenue and a Ritz-Carlton Hotel — but the property remains in limbo.

What they’re saying: “I can’t believe the country club hasn’t demanded that it is at least turned into a green space – what a blemish for Charlotte, particularly during the golf tournaments!” -Amy T.

“It could become a beautiful little park/garden that would bring much beauty to that corner.” Jane C.

Funny how people are slow to react:

CP wrote about this five years ago with the prospect of both the PGA Championship and the just held President's Cup, coming to Quail Hollow. But the effort got little traction. 

Of course Johnny Harris is micro focused on Quail Hollow and we can assume seldom drives past the cesspool now homeless camp known as Dee Dee's Hole. But how just ugly.

It is time for the City and County to move on the property. Build or Condemn and turn the area into much needed green space.

Now after years of neglect the hole has become a home to waterfowl. Heron, Geese, Ducks and some homeless birds have made the urban sanctuary home.

But let's be clear the last night the area needs is "affordable housing" the blight that exists just to the west on Sharon Road and to the south behind Charlotte Cathloic High School is enough of the crime/drug dealer havens.

Twitter I Give Up!

Maybe Elon Musk can fix Twitter, but I have my doubts.

It is deeper than fire everyone and change all the settings. 

Take for example my "retort" to the "Asian Hate" wokeness of 2021. 

After endless hysteria spawning tweets from Liberals over a number of obvious hate based physical attacks on Asian Americans CP offered up this:

Many, in fact likely all of these crimes were perpetrated by African Americans who often feel victimized by Asian shop owners in the intercities of our nation. 

Nothing about my reply was threatening or promoted violence but yet there were are suspended because CP tweeted the words......

My point was clear our culture evolves, left alone we grow to accept those we find different and over time biases diminish. 

But fan the flames and well here we are.

Charlotte Driver Video Tapes Racist CMPD

CMPD running a Accident Reduction Operation targets low income folk?

Well at least that's what one random Charlotte resident claims as she witnesses several simultaneous traffic stops along The Plaza.

The driver or passenger can be heard saying "everyone they pull over is Black". 

In the video CMPD marked SUV's are seen conducting traffic stops as well as two "Dual" sport motorcycles as the voice remarks "you need to take your ass to the south side".

Cedar's take:

This is the same tired "you pulled me over because I'm black excuse". It has got to be hard blaming life's mistakes on your skin color. Of course you can hear it: "Officer you pulled me over because I'm black" followed by "No ma'am I pulled you over because you were doing 67 in a 35 mph zone and you don't have a valid tag on your car".

Anyone driving in Charlotte just to the grocery store or taking the kids to school has noticed the insanity or Charlotte drivers. So many have toss the DMV manual out the window that speeding has become insane. 70 on Central and Providence and 100 is normal on 485.

So what's your take?

Small Minded Bicyclists

Have you ever noticed how fast and efficient UPS drivers are? Not just the right turn only routes but they never seem to struggle with directions or finding the package that's your's when the truck rolls to a stop.

But never mind their efficiently because bicyclists are convinced they are more important. Take as Huma Imtiza who is having a nutty over a Brown Truck parked for 30 seconds on a bike lane for an example.

Finally CP has had enough and so the suggestion to just let it go is offered she then blocked me. But it didn't stop there she continued blast UPS and other drivers. 

But somewhere down the line she tangled with the wrong person and ended up deleting her twitter account.