North Carolina’s former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is now running for a Senate seat in his state, appointed judges who oversaw the release of violent criminals, including the man accused of murdering Iryna Zarustska.
While Cooper has desperately tried to distance himself from the consequences of his soft-on-crime policies, he directly appointed the judge who oversaw the release of violent criminals who went on to murder innocent individuals — a point former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley — who is also running in the state’s senate race — is making.
“Roy Cooper can lie about his soft-on-crime record all he wants, but the truth is clear,” Whatley said in a statement first obtained by Breitbart News. “As Governor, Cooper pushed cashless bail and pretrial release through his pro-criminal task force and stacked the courts with far-left judges who put violent offenders ahead of North Carolinians’ safety.”
“He’s never understood that dangerous criminals belong behind bars — not back on the streets preying on our communities,” Whatley added.
Indeed, one of Cooper’s bragging points has been his “racial equity” task force, which sought to selectively eliminate cash bail using racial quotas. The Democrat’s website brags of this so-called accomplishment while ignoring the reality of the violence it amplified:
In June 2020, Governor Cooper launched the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC). TREC focuses on addressing existing policies and procedures that disproportionately affect communities of color and developing solutions to ensure racial equity in North Carolina’s criminal justice system.
In addition to pushing cashless bail, they also pushed pre-trial release, and Cooper himself appointed leftist judges who oversaw the release of violent criminals into U.S. cities. One such example is his 2018 appointment of Judge Roy Wiggins, the latter of whom oversaw the release of serial arrestee Decarlos Brown — the suspect accused of fatally stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a trail in August.
More specifically, Wiggins supervised the magistrate, Teresa Stokes, who released Brown, the latter of whom had already arrested 14 times. As it stands, Wiggins still refuses to fire Stokes, despite mass calls to do so, including from all members of the North Carolina Republican delegation.
“The entire NC Republican delegation called for the removal of Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes for letting Iryna Zarutska’s murderer out on the streets. Her lenient interpretation of the pretrial release statutes calls into question her fitness for service,” Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) said.
“The District Court says they are ‘reviewing’ and ‘evaluating’ policies and procedures,” he continued. “But is Stokes still making judgments for other criminals even though she has lost the public’s confidence?”
However, Cooper has continued to absolve himself of any guilt, accusing those of pointing to the reality of his soft-on-crime policies as attempting to score political points.
However, it does not end there. Cooper appointed other leftist judges who oversaw the release of violent criminals. In 2023, he appointed Kendra Montgomery-Blinn as a district court judge in Judicial District 14 serving Durham County. She oversaw the release of Shyrone Evans, arrested for allegedly “strangling and punching a woman he was dating.” He got out on $15,000 bond and went on to kill a man, fleeing from police in a stolen vehicle. The crash resulted in the death of a man, Jermaine Clement, who was on his way get dialysis.
Just three days after that arrest, he was released again.
Per the News & Observer:
Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said Shyrone Evans shouldn’t have been returning to the jail again and again on escalating charges, the latest being the murder of a Durham man on his way to receiving dialysis.
“The tragic accident Mr. Evans is charged with that allegedly caused the death of another person could have been avoided,” Birkhead said.
…
But after being arrested March 15, Evans walked out of the Durham County jail March 18, the day before Jermaine Clement died. He did so after covering a $10,000 bond for violating pretrial release conditions in Orange County.
Notably, this was not his first run-in with law enforcement — not even close, facing 37 felony charges and 9 misdemeanors since July 2023.
Across the country, Americans are sounding the alarm on the left’s soft-on-crime policies, including Steve Federico, father of 22-year-old Logan Federico, the latter of whom was shot and killed in a break-in in Columbia, South Carolina, by a repeat offender.
“Dead. Gone. Why? Because Alexander Devante Dickey, who was arrested 39 goddamn times, 25 felonies, was on the street. How about that? How good are we doing for our family? How good are you doing for your kids? He should have been in jail for over 140 years for all the crimes he committed,” Federico said.
“You know how much time he spent in prison? A little over 600 days in ten years. He’s only 30 years old. He was committing 2.65 crimes a year since he was 15 years old. But nobody could figure out that he couldn’t be rehabilitated,” he said. “Well, you’d have to put him in prison to see as he could be rehabilitated.”
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