Maurice King

On March 4, 2020, Maurice King, an intellectually disabled prisoner at the Orange County Jail, was fatally assaulted in his jail cell by other prisoners who took turns going into and out of Mr. King’s cell, holding the cell door closed and guarding the cell. Detention officers could see clear signs of the assault, both directly and on the security camera monitors in the control room. Not only did they decline to intervene in the assault, but they waited an hour and a half after the assault to check on Mr. King, whom they found in his cell, severely injured and unable to walk. Another thirty-nine minutes after finding him, jail staff finally called 911. Mr. King died shortly after arriving at Duke Emergency Department.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services found the Orange County Jail violated state minimum standards law requiring detention officers to conduct regular rounds to check on prisoners. The detention officers were not disciplined. The Medical Examiner determined the cause of Mr. King’s death to be a heart attack resulting from the assault and the manner of death to be homicide. The District Attorney charged only a single prisoner with involuntary manslaughter.

Allyn Sharp represents Mr. King’s estate in a civil rights lawsuit against the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Please contact her if you have information relevant to this case, including information about the prisoners involved in Mr. King’s fatal assault or information about the Orange County Detention Center and how the staff treat the prisoners housed there — what they do to protect them from assault by other prisoners, whether they conduct rounds as required, and how they respond to prisoners’ emergency medical needs.

John Otis Boyd

In 1998 and 1999, John Otis Boyd was wrongly convicted of multiple armed robberies which had been committed by a black man in Greensboro, most of them with the use of a crowbar. When shown a photo lineup, a witness of one of the robberies told Greensboro police investigator Jay Landers she knew Mr. Boyd from growing up in the same neighborhood and she was certain he was not the robber. Landers left this out of his report.

Then-prosecutor Gary Goodman tried Mr. Boyd three separate times to increase his felony sentencing points and ensure consecutive sentences. At the start of the first trial, the same witness came to court and told Mr. Goodman she knew Mr. Boyd and she was certain he was not the robber. Mr. Boyd’s trial attorney failed to interview her or call her as a witness. Mr. Goodman told her she could leave the courthouse. Mr. Boyd was convicted at all three trials and sentenced to up to 64 years in prison.

Shortly after Mr. Boyd’s convictions, Mr. Goodman was fired and disciplined by the State Bar for withholding exculpatory evidence in several serious felony cases. His other cases — including that of Mr. Boyd — were never reviewed. Mr. Boyd, who is now 61 years old, has been in prison for 24 years.

Tragically, in 2022, Mr. Boyd’s motion for appropriate relief was denied by Guilford County Senior Resident Judge John O. Craig III, even after a hearing at which victims testified they were certain Mr. Boyd was not the tire iron robber, including the witness who knew Mr. Boyd from growing up and who had told the investigator over 20 years before that she was certain Mr. Boyd was not the man who tried to rob her. The North Carolina Court of Appeals denied review of Mr. Boyd’s case. Allyn Sharp is not giving up on getting Mr. Boyd out of prison. Please contact her if you have information relevant to this case, including information about former GPD investigator Jay Landers or former ADA Gary Goodman.

Timothy Britt

UPDATE: THIS CASE HAS BEEN RESOLVED

In 2011, Timothy Britt was arrested on false sexual allegations made by a young girl with severe mental and behavioral issues who had made many previous allegations against others of sexual assault and abuse — all of which had been determined unfounded.

Robeson County Sheriff’s Office investigators Kevin Hickman and Butch Howell took Mr. Britt to the Sheriff’s Office, where they interrogated him. According to Mr. Britt’s MAR and civil complaint, Mr. Britt repeatedly denied the allegations, after which Hickman and Howell tricked Mr. Britt into signing a fabricated false confession without reading it by promising if he just signed something “saying we’ve talked” they would take him home and he’d probably never hear from them again. After getting Mr. Britt’s signature, the investigators obtained arrest warrants and took Mr. Britt to jail.

In 2013, as a result of the signed “confession,” Mr. Britt was convicted at trial of child sex offenses for which he received a 25-30 year prison sentence. In October 2017, Allyn Sharp filed Mr. Britt’s motion for appropriate relief. In November 2017, the Court granted Mr. Britt’s MAR, the State dismissed all charges, and Mr. Britt was released from prison. Allyn Sharp represented Mr. Britt in his civil rights lawsuit against the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, which was resolved in 2022.