The Uptown paper of record answers some questions about Reginald Lamar Johnson with its account today, but raises even bigger ones in the process.

As we noted yesterday, Johnson was arrested on March 30th and charged with several misdemeanors. It was unclear why those charges — which included a marijuana possession charge — were not sufficient to revoke his parole. The official explanation:

But on March 30, he was charged with hit and run, failure to stop, damaging property and marijuana possession after running into a security guard’s car outside Club Onyx, a south Charlotte strip club.

The guard was subpoenaed but failed to show up for Johnson’s trial Aug. 5, said the arresting officer, Jared Whitner. All four charges against Johnson were dismissed.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Whitner said. “It happens all the time.”

Yes, it does Officer Whitner. In Mecklenburg County. The prosecution did not need to rely on the testimony of a strip club bouncer to get convictions on at least some of those charges, especially the possession charge. The testimony of the arresting officer might’ve been enough. Besides, are we to actually believe that the “strapped” prosecutor’s office that regularly pleads down violent felonies was ready to go to trial on these charges? I frankly do not believe that.

I think what happened is that the prosecutor’s office dropped the matter off in the bouncer’s lap and in effect said, you prosecute this guy.