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Tuesday, 08 August 2006 16:34 |
3 males arrested, charged
in rape of 17-year-old girl
Two Charlotte men and a West Asheville teenager were arrested last week on charges in connection with the rape of a 17-year-old Asheville girl near a West Asheville motel.
Arrested early last Thursday were Pablo Vazquez Osorio, 22, who was charged with first-degree rape; and Marcos Guerrero-Fuentes, 23, charged with aiding and abetting a rape. The two men later were charged with kidnapping. Other charges could follow, police said.
A
third male, Joshua Michael Dusseau, 17, was arrested and charged early
Friday with first-degree kidnapping for his alleged role in the
incident.
Dusseau, who was
arrested without incident about 1:10 a.m. at the home of his mother on
New Leicester Highway, is being held in the Buncombe County Detention
Center on a $25,000 bond.
Meanwhile,
police identified the two Charlotte men as construction workers who
were in Asheville working on a job site. They reportedly met the
alleged victim through a mutual acquaintance at whose home they were at
early that night. They went for a drive together and the girl later
asked to be taken home. Against her wishes, police said, the men drove
her to the Red Roof Inn at 16 Crowell Rd., off Smoky Park Highway,
where they had a room.
After the incident, police said the woman was able to walk away without restraint.
Asheville police
were notified about 3:08 a.m. of a sexual assault at the motel, police
spokesman John Dankel noted. Responding officers were met by the girl,
who reported she had been sexually assaulted by several male subjects,
he added.
The two
Charlotte men who were hiding near the area of the assault were
apprehended by the police and identified as the subjects who committed
the assault, Dankel said.
They were arrested and booked into the Buncombe County Detention Center, where they were held under $50,000 secured bonds.
The girl was taken to Mission Hospitals, where she was treated and released. The investigation is continuing.
Brother of suspect in rape
dies in fall at I-240 open cut
An Asheville man
died Friday morning after being seen falling down the rocks in the open
cut on the north side of I-240 in Asheville.
The body was
later identified as that of Earl William Dusseau, 25, who lived on New
Leicester Highway in Asheville. His next of kin has been notified.
A dump truck
driver who witnessed the fall called 911 to report the incident about
10:06 a.m., according to John Dankel, spokesman for the Asheville
Police Department.
Responding
officers found the man dead near the bottom of the rocks. He appeared
to have suffered multiple injuries from the fall, Dankel noted.
?®At this point, there is no reason to believe the fall was anything other than an accident,?∆ Dankel said.
The body sent to Winston-Salem for autopsy to determine the exact cause of death. The investigation will continue.
Dankel added
that Earl William Dusseau is the older brother of Joshua Micheal
Dusseau, who was arrested by Asheville police about 1 a.m. Friday on a
charge of kidnapping as a result of his alleged role in a sexual
assault that occurred near the Red Roof Inn in West Asheville.
?®There is no
indication, at this point, that the two incidents are related in any
way,?∆ Dankel said. ?®There is no indication that Earl William Dusseau
was involved in the West Asheville rape incident.?∆
Superior court judge OKs
Woodfin sex offender ban
A Superior Court judge on July 31 upheld a Woodfin ordinance that bans sex offenders from using the town??s three public parks.
An appeal had
been brought against the town by David Standley, 43, a registered sex
offender who lives in Woodfin. He was supported in his suit by the N.C.
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Standley, who
was convicted in Florida of attempted sexual battery with a weapon
against an adult in 1987, argued that the ordinance was too general and
affected people who had never committed sexual crimes against children.
The town law imposes fines of up to $500 and 30 days in jail for any registered sex offender who enters a town park.
Woodfin adopted
the law in May 2005 after the conviction of Christopher Bowman, 47, for
kidnapping two teenage girls at the Asheville Mall and driving them to
his home so that two men could have sex with them. Bowman lived across
the street from South Woodfin Park.
No one has been charged yet under the park ordinance, authorities noted.
Twelve of the 263 registered sex offenders in Buncombe County lived in Woodfin, as of the law??s passage.
Bones found in river ID??d
as woman with craniotomy
Investigators at
the state Medical Examiner??s Office in Chapel Hill say that a human
skeleton found July 31 in the French Broad River is that of a white
woman between 21 and 50 years old, acording to Asheville Police
Department.
The MEO examination of the remains also found that the woman had undergone a craniotomy, or surgical incision into the skull.
The skeleton was
spotted by employees of Highwater Clays at 600 Riverside Drive, while
they were eating lunch behind the company??s building.
APD officers and
Asheville Fire-Rescue personnel collected the partial skeletal remains
from the riverbed. The remains had been submerged about 10 feet from
the riverbank.
Asheville police
are continuing to investigate and ask that anyone with information
about the skeletal remains contact Det. Ernie Welborn at 259-5928.
2nd set of remains found;
sent to lab for comparison
Asheville police
on Monday found dismembered human remains that appear to be from a
recently deceased white female on Haywood Street near Roberts Street,
which runs parallel to the French Broad River.
Monday??s set of
human remains, as well as dismembered human remains found in the French
Broad River behind Highwater Clays at 600 Riverside Drive on July 31,
has been submitted to the State Crime Laboratory for DNA comparison.
Fingerprints
were obtained from the latest remains, police said, noting that a
search is being conducted through the national Automated Fingerprint
Identification System in hopes of finding a match and establishing the
victim??s identity.
Investigators also are looking at missing person cases from this area, especially those reported in the last six to eight weeks.
Anyone having information about either of these cases is asked to contact Det. Ernie Wellborn at 259-5928.
Alligator from French Broad
transported to coast, freed
A 3-foot-long
alligator found in the French Broad River recently has been transported
to a new home along the North Carolina coast.
Some officials
had expressed concerns that the animal might be too comfortable with
people to be released into the wild, having most likely been raised by
humans.
However, Mike
Carraway, a spokesman for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said
the reptile could be released in a location remote enough that it would
probably never encounter people again.
On Aug. 1,
Carraway transported the alligator from Brevard College, where it had
been kept since being captured by kayakers the previous Sunday.
Officials at the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that the alligator should have no
problem surviving in the wild, because reptiles do not develop
affinities for humans as easily as birds or mammals do.
Fliers threatening blacks
found along MLK Jr. Drive
Handwritten
fliers containing a racial slur and a threat to blacks were found by
Asheville police blowing in the wind along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
last Thursday night.
Additional copies of the fliers turned up the same night at nearby McCormick Field, following the Asheville Tourists?? game.
The fliers
alleged that blacks had attacked whites one evening two weekends ago at
the city??s Bele Chere festival ?? and that the whites were going to
exact revenge, police said.
Methamphetamine charges
filed against Canton man
Officers with
the Metropolitan Enforcement Group arrested Stacie Lee Glance, 22, last
Wednesday on two counts of manufacturing, possessing and trafficking
methamphetamines.
Glance was allegedly caught with between 200 grams and 400 grams of the substance.
He was being held in lieu of a $30,000 bond at the Buncombe County Detention Center.
Charges filed against man
for possession of cocaine
Asheville police charged Lee Higgins Jr., 36, of Asheville with possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
He was also arrested for an outstanding fugitive warrant for violating the terms of his probation in Greenwood County, S.C.
Higgins was being held at the Buncombe County Detention Center in leiu of an $8,000 bond.
Multiple felony counts filed
against man from Leicester
A Leicester man was arrested by the State Highway Patrol on various felony charges last Wednesday.
Charles Edwin
Jordan, 38, was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon,
assault by pointing a gun, probation violation, communicating threats,
driving with a revoked license and driving while impaired.
He was being held at the Buncombe County Detention Center in lieu of a $100,400 bond.
Asheville man arrested,
accused of armed robbery
Thomas Antwan
Jordan, 27, was arrested last Wednesday and charged with robbery with a
dangerous weapon and possesion of a firearm by a felon.
He is accused of robbing two people with a handgun, taking $240 and $50, respectively.
Jordan was being held at the Buncombe County jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
Former correctional officer
pleads guilty to sex offence
A former prison
official at the Craggy Correctional Center pleaded guilty last Thursday
to charges that she had sex with an inmate during her tenure there.
According to officials, Edith Pope of Asheville had sex with a prisoner over several months between fall 2004 and spring 2005.
She pleaded
guilty in Buncombe County Superior Court to seven counts of sexual
activity by a custodian. She will be sentenced on two counts, by the
terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
The inmate is serving a life sentence for several violent crimes, including second-degree murder.
Renovations of apartments
spurs standoff by residents
Two residents of
the Vanderbilt Apartments in downtown Asheville barricaded themselves
in an apartment and called the police after the building??s management
attempted to move them while doing renovations.
Marilyn Muccio,
65, and Susan Hagaman, 54, refused to move, alleging that the temporary
spaces in the same buidling where they were being told to move were
substandard.
Hagaman suffers from a deteriorated neuromuscular system, a condition her doctors believe to be caused by a virus.
The Vanderbilt
Apartments, which accepts federally subsidized residents, was purchased
in 2004 by National Church Residences, which also bought and renovated
the nearby Battery Park Apartments.
The $5 million
renovations of the Vanderbilt Apartments was scheduled to begin last
Monday and will enlarge and modernize the apartments.
Police managed to negotiate a compromise between the residents and management. However, Muccio reportedly moved only grudgingly.
Billboard on Patton Avenue
vandalized, termed racist
A controversial
billboard on Patton Avenue that depicted a Mexican flag raised above an
inverted American flag was vandalized recently in two separate
incidents last weekend.In the first,
the word ?®racism?∆ was added to the sign and the Web site for the group
that sponsored the billboard, the Buncombe County Republican Action
Club, was covered up.
In a second incident, a note was added listing the location of a restaurant where the BCRAC meets.
In keeping with
the billboard company??s policy, the billboard was covered with a public
service announcement and the sponsors were refunded 50 percent of the
costs.
A spokesman for
the group said that they will not be replacing the billboard, but that
a second billboard on Swannanoa River Road will remain up.
Investigation into shooting
of Fairview teen continues
FAIRVIEW ??
Buncombe County Sheriff??s detectives continue to investigate the
shooting of a 13-year-old boy at his home in Fairview last month.
Detectives are
considering the possibility that the attacker was a disgruntled former
employee or investor in a failed business operated by Isaac Mau??s
family in Utah prior to last summer when they moved to Fairview,
authorities reported.
According to
reports, two white men between 20 and 30 years old entered the home
after firing a shot throuh a front window and then kicking in the door.
The teenager
came down the stairs when he heard noises and was shot when one of the
men attempted to pull the other back and a gun went off.
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