News Roundup

Published for NC Criminal Law on August 20, 2021.

A North Carolina man, Floyd Ray Roseberry, caused the evacuation of buildings near the United States Capitol yesterday after parking his truck on the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress and claiming that it was rigged with explosives capable of destroying two city blocks.  While livestreaming to Facebook, Roseberry reportedly said that he would surrender peacefully if President Joe Biden stepped down from office.  The incident prompted a massive law enforcement and emergency personnel response, and Roseberry eventually surrendered without incident.  The story was developing at the time of writing.  Keep reading for more news.  Covid Toolkit.  In recent weeks the Delta variant of the coronavirus has been driving significant increases in COVID cases in North Carolina and across the country.  As the News Roundup noted last week, the Mecklenburg County Courthouse was closed because of an outbreak among employees and other jurisdictions in the state have experienced similar problems.  Regular readers know that the SOG’s Public Defense Education group has created a COVID-19 Toolkit that contains numerous resources discussing the virus’s impact on criminal proceedings.  As a reminder, the Tool Kit is available for free at this link. Green Plea.  WLOS reports that former Catawba County Superior Court Judge Daniel Ray Green pleaded guilty last week to taking indecent liberties with a child in 2019.  Green was sentenced to nearly two years in prison followed by supervised probation.  He also must register as a sex offender and was permanently disbarred.  The Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office issued a press release [...]