Carolina Alumni Review - March/April 2010

Smith Videotape Stays Sealed;
DKE Will Build Habitat House
ASuperior Court judge in Randolph County has ruled that the video- tape from a police car’s dashboard
camera capturing the last moments of a
UNC student’s life will remain sealed.

Smith’s parents, Pharr ’ 77 and Susan
Judge Bradford Long concluded his
decision in January by writing that Ran-
dolph County Superior Court “is without
the authority as a matter of law to release
the video” of Courtland Smith’s fatal
encounter with Archdale police on Aug. 23.
Smith was president of Delta Kappa
Epsilon.

Smith, filed two motions in November
with the court asking that the tape not be
released. Jonathan Megerian ’ 81, an Ashe-
boro attorney who represented the Smiths
in the case, said that Long’s decision left the
Smith family “very relieved and glad the
decision came out the way it did.”
The news also was a relief to DKE
members, who joined Smith’s parents in
January at a ceremony to break ground on
the Courtland Benjamin Smith Memorial
The decision also maintains that videos
such as the one in this case are records of
criminal investigations and therefore not
public records.

House, a Habitat for Humanity house the
fraternity has helped fund and is helping to
build in Smith’s honor.

Smith was shot and killed by an Archdale police officer in the early morning along I- 85. Smith was stopped by police after calling 911 and informing them he had been drinking, was armed and was contemplating suicide.

The fraternity committed to raising the $75,000 cost to build the house. DKE had raised $64,000 of that amount by January, including a $25,000 contribution from Bank of America. Members are working with Habitat volunteers to build the house.

In October, Long had ruled that he would not release the videotape because release could jeopardize a criminal investigation and the right of the state to prosecute a potential defendant and could jeopardize the right of a potential defendant to receive a fair trial.

ROBERT WILLETT/THE NEWS & OBSERVER

Long had ruled in September that the video could eventually be released if the officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing and not prosecuted for Smith’s death.

Pharr Smith ’ 77 speaks at the Habitat house dedication before a crowd that included the future owners of the house.

Randolph County District Attorney
Garland Yates said in December that the
fatal shooting of the 21-year-old Houston
native by J.P. Flinchum, the Archdale offi-
cer, was “legally justified and lawful.”
The house, in a 50-home Habitat
complex on the north side of Chapel Hill,
will be owned by a family who fled the
violence in Burma. The couple both work
for the University.

Contributions to the project can be
sent to Habitat for Humanity of Orange
Four news organizations filed a motion
requesting the release of the tape last fall
based on the contention that it was public
record.

County, attention of Courtland Smith
Memorial House, 1829 E. Franklin St.,
Suite 1200B, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514; and
online at orangehabitat.org/donate.
Online Digest
Read these stories in detail and more
in From the Hill Online at alumni.unc.edu.

n Three finalists are being considered to be UNC’s next provost. Chancellor Holden Thorp ’ 86 is expected to make a recommendation to trustees in March for naming Carolina’s top academic officer.

n Twenty-one teachers and teaching assistants have been honored with awards based on nominations from students and faculty.

n Jordan Whichard ’ 79 has been tapped by trustees Chair Robert Winston ’ 84 to review Greek life at UNC and recommend improvements following a turbulent semester.

n Picking Cotton,
this year’s summer
reading selection,
tells of the friendship
between a woman
and the innocent man she sent to prison.

n UNC honors a teacher, a staff member
and a student with its
University Awards for the
Advancement of Women.
n Carolina has 78 alumni serving as
Peace Corps volunteers, placing it sixth in
the U.S. in numbers serving.
ONLINE

n First-generation college students make up about 20 percent of this year’s entering class; UNC has created a Web site and other initiatives to raise awareness of them.

n An entrepreneurial business incubator in the Kenan-Flagler Business School has selected 15 N.C. companies to assist as it enters its second year connecting businesses with sustainability resources.