Mecklenburg DA candidate vows to investigate reported sex assaults at CMS high schools

A Charlotte lawyer seeking to unseat Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather in the May 17 primary said he would investigate the handling of sexual assault cases reported at high schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

In a video posted on his campaign website, Democrat Tim Emry said he disagreed with Merriweather’s decision last fall not to seek an outside review by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation of six reported rapes and other sexual assaults at Myers Park High School. Emry said he would seek an outside review of the cases.

Besides Merriweather, Emry is the only other candidate on the ballot in the May 17 Democratic primary for district attorney. No Republican is on the ballot.

In a campaign news release Wednesday, Emry linked to a September 2021 WBTV article in which Merriweather declined to call for the outside review.

“I have not learned anything to date which leads me to believe an SBI investigation is warranted in this matter,” Merriweather said in a statement at the time, WBTV reported. “If I do learn more, I’ll make that determination if it’s appropriate.”

In Wednesday’s news release, Emry said if elected, he “would also investigate whether any ‘criminal activity occurred’ in the original handling of these cases.”

Merriweather on Thursday referred the Observer to his statement last year. His office provided a copy of that statement to the Observer.

The statement also said: “My own experience as a sexual assault prosecutor has taught me that information in such cases is dynamic and that a prosecutor can only injure case viability with public, extrajudicial comment. Investigations and dispositions are often given new life under Evidentiary Rule 404(b). Accordingly, I won’t be commenting further.”

Sexual misconduct allegations

In November, CMS Superintendent Earnest Winston said he planned to take investigations of sexual misconduct allegations out of the hands of principals and add staff to the district’s central Title IX office, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.

The moves followed months of intense scrutiny of CMS over its handling of past reports of sexual assault and harassment on its campuses.

In the previous three months, three CMS administrators (two principals, one assistant principal) were suspended after complaints of how they handled Title IX cases prompted internal investigations.

Title IX is part of federal education law that prohibits discrimination based on sex and requires schools to thoroughly investigate harassment or sexual violence reports from students or staff.

On Tuesday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted 7-2 to fire Winston, effective immediately.

Board members pointed to documents they released as reasons why they fired Winston, who had been on the job for 2 1/2 years. Concerns included Winston’s slow implementation of district safety measures, questions of judgment related to Title IX issues and the slow or delayed implementation of key decisions, according to records from Winston’s personnel file released Tuesday.

Until Winston’s announcement in November, CMS focused its response to widespread criticisms with assurances that schools are safe, district leaders take the issue seriously, and announcements that annual Title IX training would be enhanced, along with sex education courses and the addition of a student-centered task force on the issue of sexual misconduct.

Accusation against football player

Problems at CMS campuses, as the Observer had previously reported, ranged from allowing a football player accused of sexual assault at school to play while wearing an ankle bracelet to a Title IX investigation that concluded a female student lied about being groped, and then punished her for making a false report.

Winston’s November update came less than a week after an Observer investigation revealed how the attempted suspension of a high school student who’d reported being assaulted in a bathroom broke best practices — and potentially ran afoul of federal regulations meant to protect victims’ rights. The case at Hawthorne Academy of Health Sciences was first reported by WBTV.

As a result of media reports and client complaints, nationally known attorney Laura Dunn asked the federal government to open an investigation into the way CMS responds to reports of sexual misconduct, the Observer reported in November.