Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say they've charged 51-year-old Antonio Gaines for his involvement in a sexual assault that occurred 24 years ago near uptown Charlotte.
Police say the assault took place on April 23, 1993. A woman was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by several men in the 400 block of Caldwell Street. The police department collected and analyzed evidence of the crime, but were unable to identify any suspects.
The CMPD Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit reopened the investigation and re-examined DNA evidence, leading to confirmation of Gaines as a suspect in Jan. 2017.
Gaines has been incarcerated in the Scotland County Correctional Center in North Carolina for a conviction of another sexual assault that took place in 2001. He's now been charged with two counts of first degree rape, first degree sex offense, and attempted robbery.
North Carolina Gov. In Court Over Election Oversight Revision
Attorneys for Governor Roy Cooper and Republican lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly are due in court Friday as a three-judge panel determines whether a law that curtails Cooper's oversight of state and local elections is constitutional.
The law takes away Cooper's authority to appoint the majority of members of the statewide elections board and elections boards in all 100 counties. For more than a century, governors have been allowed to pick election board majorities.
GOP lawmakers now want to divide elections boards equally between Democrats and Republicans. The judicial panel struck down an earlier version of the law.
Bill Would Allow City Managers To View Police Footage
City managers would be added to the list of people allowed to view police footage under legislation advancing in the North Carolina General Assembly, but lawmakers will not add town council members to the list after some lawmakers questioned whether they would keep the footage secret, even if their members sign confidentiality agreements.
Under current state law, police body and dash cam footage is not considered public record, but the family of someone who has been injured or killed at the hands of police may view it, while other members of the public may ask a judge to release it.
Head Of York County Tourism Bureau Resigns
The executive director of the York County Tourism Board has resigned. Media outlets report Lisa Meadows submitted her resignation last night, a week after she was arrested and charged with stealing roughly $350 worth of tanning lotions from a Fort Mill salon.
Meadows had already been suspended without pay earlier this week by the bureau's governing board. Meadow's lawyer, Gary Lemel, tells the Herald of Rock Hill she still denies any wrongdoing. Meadows originally told officers she forgot to pay for the lotions, according to a police report.
