Welcome back to The Dive. 

We’ve returned after a brief break, and we’ve got a new host! Local reporter and Wilmington native Johanna F. Still has joined us to anchor this newsletter. Still comes to us from Greater Wilmington Business Journal, where she covered economic development. She is also a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and former assistant editor at Port City Daily, where she focused on environmental issues and local government. 

As The Assembly’s Wilmington editor, she’ll continue working with our partners at WHQR to bring you this weekly newsletter and in-depth reporting. 

We’re eager to get back to it. And if you haven’t already, please fill out our 5-minute survey about what we’ve been doing so far. 

Inside the Grand Jury’s Black Box

On the afternoon of June 19, Dyrell Green was brought into a New Hanover County courtroom in shackles, under the watchful eye of no fewer than 12 uniformed sheriff’s deputies and many more plainclothes law enforcement officers who had come to watch the proceedings.

The mood was tense in Courtroom 403. On the docket: a motion to dismiss the murder charges against Green and his co-defendants, Omonte Bell and Raquel Adams. The three are charged in a high-profile double-homicide case that took place in July 2021 at the home of a top executive for TRU Colors, a controversial and since-shuttered brewery with a social mission to reduce street violence by hiring active gang members. 

Defense attorneys filed their motion after getting their hands on a PowerPoint presentation from the February 2022 grand jury hearing where Adams, Bell, and Green were indicted–a necessary step in North Carolina to pursue serious felony charges. 

The attorneys argued that the presentation from New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office detective Jeremy Boswell had contained potential perjury–and violated the defendants’ constitutional right to due process.

That the lawyers had access to the presentation at all is highly unusual. Grand jury proceedings in North Carolina are clandestine: no recordings or transcripts are allowed, and jurors are forbidden from discussing what transpired. 

As Emily Byrum, Green’s defense attorney, told the court, our state is one of only about 10 with this level of secrecy. 

Inside the Grand Jury’s Black Box

A twist in the TRU Colors murder trial briefly pierced the veil of North Carolina’s opaque grand jury proceedings.

Benjamin Schachtman reports on a case that is both unsettling and seemingly unprecedented, in which defense attorneys tried to have a double-murder case thrown out based on evidence that a detective may have given false testimony to the grand jury. 

The judge’s ruling said nothing about the evidence and everything about the opacity of our state’s grand jury process. 

Read this newsletter online, and contact out with tips or feedback at wilmington@theassemblync.com.

Remember Titan?

“We’re setting up a clashing situation here.” 

At a New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday, Rob Zapple aired some discomfort about a proposal to conditionally rezone industrial land in Castle Hayne for residential development. The plan would place hundreds of apartments and homes next door to an industrial zone, and Zapple was hesitant to OK the deal.

But the commissioner ultimately voted in favor of Olympus Holding Company Castle Hayne LLC’s proposal to build “The Oasis,” a 521-unit development that will include a mix of apartments and single-family dwellings. 

The site sits across the street from Titan America’s S&W Ready Mix Concrete Company. 

Another neighboring industrial business, Martin Marietta, submitted a public comment to make sure the county was fully aware of its early-morning loud machinery, crushing, blasting and more associated with its mining operations. In a separate letter opposing the rezoning, Titan America described its current and disruptive operations as “wholly incompatible” with a neighboring residential development.

Locals will recognize the Titan name. Over a decade ago, Titan’s proposal for a massive cement plant 2 miles from its current site on Holly Shelter Road sparked widespread community backlash and splintered area businesses. “STOP TITAN” signs decorated front yards for years. It was one of the region’s highest-profile environmental stories in recent memory – that is, until GenX came along. 

Titan nixed its plans in 2016, but the ordeal prompted local officials to reprioritize the area’s economic development strategies.

As a condition of the board’s unanimous approval Monday, developers must disclose the potential for noise, vibration, and heavy traffic to future owners or residents. 

Allison Engebretson, a landscape architect representing the developer, said her team believed the residential project would create a pool of potential employees for the industrial businesses. “We don’t see it as adversarial,” she said. “We see it as working in harmony.”

Commissioner Jonathan Barfield Jr. highlighted the irony of Titan opposing the residential project, given that residents fiercely opposed the company’s previous plans. “I guess this is Titan’s chance to say, ‘We don’t want something close to us now,’” he said. 

Port City Daily has its own rundown of the decision.

Around the Region

Two Stars: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rated New Hanover Regional Medical Center Novant Health’s quality performance two out of five stars for the second year in a row, WHQR reports. Novant told the outlet the ratings don’t provide a full picture of the patient experience.

Beach Battle: While not specifically about our region, The Washington Post has a cautionary tale about another offshore wind project that’s several steps ahead of plans the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area. A bitter feud has ensued in a small New Jersey beach that could set a precedent for future offshore energy developments.

No Shade: The State Port Pilot has a charming story about a large live oak tree in Southport that was moved from Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point in the 1950s. It’s looking rough these days, and turns out, its positioning is “both the best thing that ever happened to it and the worst thing that ever happened to it,” Southport Forestry Committee chairman Scott Len told the paper.

Around the State

Greg Lindberg’s Plan to Live Forever

After successfully appealing a high-profile bribery conviction, the billionaire has reinvented himself as an anti-aging guru. But can he run out the clock on his mounting legal troubles?

‘This Is Work I Will Die For’

Lee A. Williams II took over as chief equity officer for Orange County Schools last year amid turmoil over how to address systemic discrimination.

Schoolyard Brawl

Orange County has been swept up in the nationwide cultural clashes over education, and Superintendent Monique Felder is the latest casualty.

The Assembly is a digital magazine covering power and place in North Carolina. Sent this by a friend? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Johanna F. Still is a health care reporter for The Assembly. She previously worked for the Greater Wilmington Business Journal, where she reported on economic development. She is also a photographer, and was the assistant editor of Port City Daily.