Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Blog
Arnold & Smith, PLLC Attorney J. Bradley Smith, spoke to Fox Charlotte recently regarding a case of student loan fraud. Mr. Smith told the news channel that he overheard someone tell the judge about how he had obtained federal loans for school and then dropped out. He then used the money he received from the federal government for school to invest in a tee-shirt printing business. As the man was telling the judge about how he had committed federal student loan fraud, Mr. Smith could not believe how cavalier and nonchalant the man seemed about committing a federal crime. “This guy was proud of it, I mean, I am telling you, it was crazy,” says Smith.
J. Bradley Smith told Fox Charlotte about the increasing problem of student loan fraud. Several millions of dollars have been given to students for the purpose of funding their educations. 
These loans are backed by the federal government and all of the money must be paid back. Should student loan fraud continue to increase, Mr. Smith believes that the bust could be even bigger than the bust seen in the real estate bubble.
The young man at the Mecklenburg County District Court who openly admitted to committing student loan fraud was once a student at Central Piedmont Community College. CPCC officials said that there is not much that they can do when it comes to policing federal student loans. The loans are an agreement between the federal government and the student. The school is only a beneficiary of the agreement, not a party to it and therefore the onus of enforcing the agreement lies with the federal government.
An “extraordinary event” is defined in the code as “a large-scale special event of national or international significance and/or an event expected to attract a significant number of people to a certain portion of the city.”
After an investigation into the incident, the police determined that a women at the scene, Andrea Endara-Paredes, was the mastermind behind the kidnapping attempt.
On average, it takes the team about 19 hours from the beginning of the team’s investigation to make an arrest. Their speed prevents the alleged criminals from fleeing the jurisdiction. Winterhalter believes that some of their success is attributable to the police department being more efficient at identifying suspects. He said, “The department is responding to the incident a little bit differently. There’s increased number of resources put into the initial investigation, different bodies from within organization are helping.”
In December 2007, Edwards, along with Young, issued a statement to the press in which Edwards denied that he was the father of Rielle Hunter’s unborn child, saying that it was Young who was father. According to Young, Edwards was to tell the press the real story once the baby was born. Young testified that he and his wife were no longer happy about letting Hunter live with them in an attempt to keep the press away from her.
Earlier this month, the 6-year-old received media attention when it was reported that after she had a temper tantrum at school, the police were called and she was handcuffed. According to reports, the girl refused to comply with her teacher’s rules and began throwing things off of the teacher’s desk. She sent the student to the principal’s office where she continued her tantrum. The student threw things off of the principal’s desk and turned over a small shelf that fell on the principal’s leg. The principal tried to calm her down, but she resisted. At that point, it was decided that the police should be called. The Milledgeville Police Department responded and placed the 6-year-old in the back of a police car and transported her to the police station. Police procedure required that anyone placed in the back of the patrol car be handcuffed.
He used this ruse to lure them out of their cars where he would rob and then rape them. These occurred in February 2010 in the high-end residential neighborhoods of Dilworth and Myers Park in Charlotte. According to officials at CMPD, Carter ambushed a woman as she was getting out of her car on Spanish Moss Lane. It was 1:30 AM and he clasped his hands over her mouth and demanded her pocketbook. He searched through her purse for money and when he did not find any he took her cigarettes instead.
An individual close to the investigation and the case told the Charlotte Observer that Edwards was offered a plea deal where he would only serve 6 months in jail and still be able to practice law, but Edwards rejected that offer. He said that he would take his chances with a jury. In a press conference, Edwards said, “After all these years, I finally get my day in court and people get to hear my side of this, and what actually happened . . . And what I know with complete and absolute certainty is I didn’t violate campaign laws and I never for a second believed I was violating campaign laws.”
He is described as a Hispanic male, between the ages of 25 and 30, with dark spikey hair. Since the incident has happened, investigators are taking it seriously and are vigorously investigating the case, but they have yet to arrest anyone for the attempted abduction.
The technology allows police to track not only the calls made by a cell phone user, but also the phone’s location, and by implication, the location of the cell phone’s user. The problem is that the police can obtain that information from the cell phone service provider without the knowledge or consent of the cell phone user. This lack of knowledge or consent prompted the ACLU to conduct a study of the process and procedures that law enforcement officials use to obtain cell phone records. The study revealed a disturbing trend.