Over at Creative Loafing, Tara Servatius fleshes out the background of career criminal Lawrence Brooks. You remember Brooks, the guy who went from America’s Most Wanted to jail, to back on the streets to offend again in typical Mecklenburg County fashion.
Servatius teases out that District Court Judge Phil Howerton was responsible for lowering Brooks’ bond on the most serious charges he faced. You may member Howerton from high-profile cases like the Rae Carruth or David Crespi murder nightmares. But just this weekend, Howerton was telling the Uptown paper of record that “no one says a damn thing” about Charlotte’s wave of young robbery suspects. This tells us Howerton has never been to the Crime in Charlotte blog, which has been screaming about the young criminals for months now.
Anyway, Howerton does seem to have had time to cultivate a a long interest in the novels of Vladimir Nabokov. Must eat into blog trolling.
Meanwhile, wife Mary is a partner at Uptown leadership training powerhouse Whitehead Associates. Clients include Bank of America, Wachovia, Harris Teeter, Leadership Charlotte, and the Mecklenburg County Bar. FEC records show that in June 2004, Mary Howerton gave $500 to Mel Watt for Congress.
I’m willing to be surprised by any aspects of just one tiny slice of Charlotte’s official policy-making network, but damned if I never am.
