Eight Winston-Salem police officers are appealing the city’s plan to release their statements on the controversial Silk Plant Forest case. The statements would be released to a citizens review committee that has criticized the police investigation of the brutal assault of store manager Jill Marker, for which Kalvin Smith was sentenced to 20-plus years.
Meanwhile, the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority files a motion to disqualify Superior Court Judge Calvin E. Murphy, who ruled against the authority in a legal battle with seven seven hydroelectric plant owners, one of whom is Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband Chip.
Sen. Hagan nominated Murphy for federal judge before his ruling against the water authority, but later withdrew his name when questions were raised about a possible conflict of interest. PTRWA director John Kime said in an affidavit that, during a July hearing, Chip Hagan sat “behind plaintiff’s counsel carrying and displaying a briefcase or portfolio bearing a visible logo of the United States Senate.”
