North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Criminal Practice – DWI – Search & Seizure – Traffic Stop – Seatbelt Violation Even though a state trooper was mistaken in his belief that defendant’s gray-shirted passenger was not wearing his gray seatbelt, the trooper’s mistaken belief that defendant had violated ...

  The press and public soon figured out that plaintiff was the “police supervisor” mentioned unfavorably in statements made by the defendant-city and the defendant-police chief; nevertheless, we cannot consider this fact in reviewing plaintiff’s claims that these statements (about ...

  In this defamation case, the court declines to extend the absolute privilege—applicable to, among other things, statements made in or related to litigation—to an attorney’s press conference, despite the fact that the attorney’s statements “mirrored” those in a complaint ...

  Plaintiff brings a facial constitutional challenge to a state law concerning automated red-light traffic cameras in the City of Greenville, but the three-judge panel below did not rule on the state’s motion to dismiss before entering summary judgment for ...

The state’s drug chemistry expert appeared fully prepared to explain how she applied gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) testing in this case, but she was interrupted and never given the opportunity. Since the expert did not explain how she applied ...

  There was evidence that the assault victim told defendant to hit him; nevertheless, defendant was not entitled to a jury instruction on consent. First, we see nothing in the common law definition of assault that supports defendant’s argument that ...

  After the trial court announced defendant’s sentence, defendant made an unintelligible remark, and the trial court held him in direct criminal contempt and sentenced him to 30 additional days. Before entering a judgment for direct criminal contempt, the trial ...

  Where the indictment for attempted armed robbery only referred to the intended victims as “employees of the Huddle House” in Jonesville, the indictment was not sufficient to confer jurisdiction on the trial court. We reverse the superior court’s denial ...

Even though the state failed to show that lifetime satellite-based monitoring (SBM) would be a reasonable search, since a condition of defendant’s post-release supervision is that he remain in Catawba County, SBM is reasonable for the period of defendant’s post-release ...

For a few seconds during defendant’s trial, the state inadvertently displayed to the jury a photo that was similar to one the trial court had excluded. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it denied defendant’s motion for ...