July 1: Football player Michael McAdoo files a lawsuit against UNC-CH and the NCAA after being kicked off the team because a tutor had provided footnotes and a bibliography for a term paper. The paper turns out to have several plagiarized passages that were missed by university officials and NCAA investigators. The paper identifies Julius Nyang’oro, chairman of the African and Afro-American Studies Department, as class professor. Chancellor Holden Thorp in a subsequent interview tells The News & Observer he is not going to question Nyang’oro about the paper.

Aug. 21: A partial academic transcript for another football player, Marvin Austin, shows he took an upper level African studies class in the summer of 2007 before taking a full slate of introductory courses in the fall that included remedial writing. Austin received a B-plus in the African studies class. UNC-CH records identified Nyang’oro as the professor.

Sept. 1: Nyang’oro resigns as chairman. University officials launch an investigation into “possible irregularities” in the African studies department after The N&O requests data on independent studies and other courses in which no class is held.

Sept. 16: UNC-CH officials confirm the investigation is targeting independent studies in the department. Data released to The N&O shows that football players are accounting for more than one in five of the enrollments in those classes.

May 4: UNC-CH’s investigation finds 54 classes in the department in which there is little or no evidence of instruction. Among them are the classes McAdoo and Austin took. Nyang’oro is directly connected to 45 of the classes. The report also finds evidence of forgery and unauthorized grade changes, but law enforcement officials decline to investigate, saying there is an apparent lack of financial motive. Data later released to The N&O shows 36 percent of the enrollments are football players and another three percent are basketball players. Nyang'oro is allowed to retire.

May 10: Records requested by The N&O show Nyang’oro received $12,000 in additional pay to teach a summer class that the internal probe found to have no classroom instruction.

May 14: Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall announces a criminal investigation in light of the summer pay, but said the probe would also look into forgery and other allegations related to the case.
 
 

Our series on hospitals began today. There's one online element that we couldn't put in the newspaper. Go here to see a hospital bill that shows how charges range all over the place at Triangle hospitals. A day in a cardiac intensive care room can bring a charge of $730,  or $3265, depending on what hospital you're in.  A chest x-ray? Anywhere from $98 to $394.

Jennifer Pierce, the founder of Share Our Shoes, has filed an appeal to restore the Raleigh shoe charity's state license to operate as a tax-exempt nonprofit.

Pierce, in a petition filed last week with the state Office of Administrative Hearings, contends the N.C. Secretary of State's office wrongfully pulled the nonprofit's license earlier this month. She said she submitted information proving that there was no misspending, and that she had reimbursed the charity for personal expenditures she made.

She also alleges in the petition that an investigator with the Secretary of State's office required her to take an test for alcohol use after she visited the office to deliver documents -- a test that she says showed no alcohol in her system -- and that he had her investigated by child protective services without proper justification.

George Jeter, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office, said officials there would have no comment while the case is being appealed. The office revoked Share Our Shoes' license after determining that Pierce could not adequately document tens of thousands of dollars in expenditures ranging from meals to personal grooming that appeared to have little to do with the charity's stated mission.

Cynthia White -- the personnel employee that state officials said was wrongly fired from the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics -- is returning to the school in a different job at the same pay.

White will work as a social/clinical research assistant for the elite public high school in Durham, making the same $49,148 a year salary she received before she was fired in mid 2010. The school has also agreed to give her back pay and benefits.

Aaron Plourde, the school's communications director, said the new job, back pay and benefits are not part of a settlement. He said school officials decided to accept the decision of the State Personnel Commission, which ruled that White was wrongly fired.

Plourde said the decision allows for White's attorney to petition the commission to order the school to pay reasonable legal costs in the case.

Jennifer Pierce, the founder and president of the beleaguered charity Share Our Shoes, says she has left the organization just as state officials are weighing whether it should keep its operating license.

Topics covered in this post include:

1. What is the Derrick Allen case?

2. What did Judge Orlando Hudson rule in the Derrick Allen case?

3. What does the state AG’s office appeal on behalf of Tracey Cline say about that?

4. What has Judge Robert H. Hobgood said about Hudson’s decision?

5. What are some key documents to read about this case?

The lengthy filing by Tracey Cline against Judge Orlando Hudson.

Documents:

§ 7A‑66.  Removal of district attorneys.

The following are grounds for suspension of a district attorney or for his removal from office:

Wake County jail officials said in a letter released today they "categorically reject" any responsibility in the fatal overdose of a 19-year-old inmate. But they also said they have made changes to ensure inmates are appropriately watched.

Last month, the state Department of Health and Human Services' Jail & Detention unit said the jail did not provide adequate supervision of Ralph Madison Stockton IV, who was found unresponsive on a jail mat the morning of Nov. 6. Jails are supposed to observe inmates at least twice an hour to make sure they are alive, but the state said Stockton had been unobserved for 62 minutes.

A state report released last week raised more questions when sheriff's investigators told the medical examiner's office that Stockton was last seen alive at 11:30 p.m. the previous evening.

Stockton of Raleigh, the grandson of a prominent Winston-Salem attorney, died in the jail. An autopsy found that he had overdosed on methadone and other drugs.

The letter written by Dail Butler, the jail's director, said the jail has begun requiring detention officers to fill out and sign a sheet that lists each time they tour the cell floors. State officials received it last week.

"We will continue to stress the importance of supervision rounds in our line-ups, supervisor meetings and yearly in-service classes," Butler wrote. "If we find any area not in compliance, the Detention Officer will be dealt with and corrective action will be taken up to and including dismissal from the Wake County Sheriff's Office."

Butler also said supervisors will make sure that detention officers are not tied up on duties such as feeding inmates or running laundry so that inmates are adequately observed. Any supervisor who assigns duties that interfere with the observation rounds also faces disciplinary action, including possible dismissal.

Stockton died at a time when the jail had more inmates, 556, than beds, 480. The overcrowding was a concern raised by the state, and Butler said in his letter that the county expects to open a new jail that will add another 672 beds in about three months.

Jim Jones, a spokesman for the DHHS, said the state has accepted the jail's operational changes.

A copy of the letter is attached.

Documents: