The Docket: Michael Jordan’s NASCAR Suit

For sports icon Michael Jordan and the racing team he co-owns, the green flags weren’t flying  in the U.S. Western District of N.C. last Friday. A federal judge ruled against them and a smaller racing team challenging NASCAR over a new charter agreement.

Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, a small-budget stock car racing team based in Mooresville, filed a lawsuit accusing NASCAR of antitrust law violations after it presented a take-it-or-leave-it revenue-sharing agreement.

The negotiations between NASCAR and 15 racing teams had gone on for more than two years, with team owners seeking:

• A large share of the revenue from the spectator sport.
• A cut of the money from business deals in which NASCAR uses the likenesses of drivers’ and teams.
• A seat at the governing table.
• Permanent charters that can be locked in for more stability.

Although 13 teams eventually accepted NASCAR’s offer in September (just days before this race team’s playoffs began), 23XI and Front Row Motorsports stood their ground.

NASCAR has since rescinded its offer to 23XI and Front Row, meaning that once their charters expire at the end of the year, they’ll be free to operate as open teams that won’t be guaranteed an equal share of revenue or a spot in the field of 38 races.

At a federal court hearing last week in western North Carolina that Jordan attended, the two teams tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney to issue a temporary court order to allow them to compete as a charter team next year. But Whitney sided with NASCAR, saying the teams had failed to show that the race teams are on the brink of irreparable harm after their charters expire.

Whitney noted that no evidence had been presented yet of the loss of sponsors or drivers, nor had they shown they might be excluded as “open teams” from races.

“At this stage, the teams are no closer to irreparable harm than they are to the command, ‘Drivers, start your engines,’ at the first race of the 2025 season,” Whitney said in his order. If circumstances change, Whitney added, he would reconsider.

Attorneys for the teams say they plan to appeal Whitney’s ruling.

—Anne Blythe

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Podcast Investigates Murder of Chris Paul’s Grandfather

CounterClock, a podcast hosted by investigative journalist Delia D’Ambra, is devoting its seventh season to the murder of Nathaniel Jones, NBA star Chris Paul’s grandfather. 

Jones, 61, the proprietor of what was believed to be the first Black-owned service station in North Carolina, died after a brutal attack outside of his East Winston-Salem home on November 15, 2002. Five teenagers—brothers Nathaniel Cauthen and Rayshawn Banner, along with Christopher Bryant, Jermal Tolliver, and Dorrell Brayboy—were convicted of murdering Jones. 

All five maintained their innocence, and no definitive physical evidence tied them to the crime scene. They said Winston-Salem police detectives coerced them into making false statements after hours-long interviews. Four said detectives threatened them with the death penalty. And the statements the boys made were inconsistent with each other and with the physical evidence. 

Brayboy died a year after he was released, but the remaining four sought exoneration through the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, which led to a hearing before a three-judge panel in 2022. That panel upheld their convictions, but the men filed new appeals with Forsyth Superior Court, resulting in an evidentiary hearing that is scheduled to begin January 6, 2025. 

The men’s innocence claims got renewed attention when key witness Jessicah Black recanted her testimony four years ago. 

I was interviewed as part of the 10-part series. As a reporter at the Winston-Salem Journal, I covered the case as it wound its way through the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission process. I also wrote about Paul’s memoir for The Assembly last year, which detailed both his close relationship with Jones and his grief. Paul was then a senior at West Forsyth High School who had just signed to play at Wake Forest University. Five days after his grandfather’s death, Paul scored 61 points in honor of Jones’ age, an iconic moment that catapulted the teenager into the national spotlight. 

Paul and his family believe all five men are guilty, though Paul wrote that he is conflicted about the length of the sentences they received as teenagers. 

The podcast, which is available on all streaming platforms, will premiere November 15, with new episodes every Friday until December 6. 

—Michael Hewlett

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Cooper’s Crime Victims Fund Quest

Gov. Roy Cooper sent a letter to Congress about a week before last week’s election, urging federal lawmakers to replenish a crime victims fund that has been slashed over the years.

The Crime Victims Fund was established in 1984 with the enactment of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, or VOCA. The fund is sustained through fines and penalties from federal criminal cases, forfeited bail bonds, and special assessments collected by U.S. Attorneys’ offices, federal courts, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons finance the fund.

“As you know, the VOCA Crime Victims Fund is the primary source for service and supports for millions of crime victims every year, including mental health counseling, legal assistance, replacement of lost wages, and temporary housing,” Cooper wrote in his October 30 letter to congressional leaders. “This fund is critical for service providers in North Carolina and across the nation who provide essential resources to help survivors of crime. More cuts would devastate these providers and the people they serve.”

The federal money that comes into North Carolina’s for the Crime Victims Fund has dropped from about $100 million in 2018 to just $5 million projected for the coming funding cycle, Cooper said. Without a more robust influx of federal funding, advocacy centers and organizations for victims of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault and other crimes will face tough decisions that could lead to the curtailment of services.

The Children’s Advocacy Centers of North Carolina, an umbrella organization that provides support and leadership to more than four dozen centers across the state, sounded an alarm about the issue months ago.

Caroline Farmer, executive director of the Governor’s Crime Commission, called attention to the problem in an April post on the North Carolina Department of Public Safety website. Part of the downward trend, Farmer wrote, goes back to 2017, when the federal government was distributing more money than it was taking in from federal prosecutions.

Three years ago, President Joe Biden signed the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act to widen the funding stream. Despite the tweak, Farmer and others have encouraged philanthropic funds to consider contributions to organizations helping crime victims.

The crime commission administers a large portion of that funding to help survivors of child abuse, sexual assault, trafficking, financial fraud and homicide.

“The decline in funding has already reduced our ability to provide these essential programs in North Carolina, and additional cuts will exacerbate the harm our nonprofits, service providers, and ultimately survivors, are facing,”  Farmer said last month.

In addition to looking to private funders, Cooper and governors across the country are looking to state lawmakers for help. Cooper’s recommended budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 included $6 million to ensure that crime victims still would receive crisis care and legal assistance despite the diminishing federal assistance. Budget negotiations among lawmakers in the Republican-led state Senate and House of Representatives broke down months ago, leaving the two-year budget adopted in 2023 as the fiscal plan for this year, too.

Although lawmakers adopted a so-called “mini-budget” that helps stave off funding cliffs ahead in the child care industry, Medicaid coffers, rural internet programs, and  school vouchers, the Crime Victims Fund did not receive the requested boost. Even if the state funding were to come through, Cooper wrote in his letter to congressional leaders, that would not be enough to make up for the substantial decline in federal funding.

“Repeated cuts have already eaten away at nonprofits and service providers that serve victims in their communities, and additional cuts will compound the harm—especially for smaller organizations and rural providers in North Carolina and across the country,” Cooper wrote. “Many service providers may be forced to close their doors.”

—Anne Blythe

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