Why N.C. media are seeking footage related to a fatal Raleigh crash
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A coalition of media organizations joined Axios this week in petitioning for the release of body and dash cam footage that may shed light on a North Carolina state trooper's involvement in a fatal Raleigh crash last year.
Why it matters: The filing comes after questions have mounted about the trooper's role in the October crash, which law enforcement said at the time involved only one car driven by 31-year-old Tyrone Mason.
- The trooper, Garrett Macario, was reportedly first on the scene.
What they're saying: "This process, led by the North Carolina State Troopers, has been shroud in a lack of transparency, to say the least," Bakari Sellers, a well-known civil rights attorney representing Mason's mother, Henrietta Mason, told Axios last month.
- Mason is also being represented by national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who joined Sellers and the Mason family in a press conference about the case last month.
Driving the news: A judge on Wednesday ordered the Raleigh Police Department and State Highway Patrol to produce video footage and other recordings related to the crash by May 8 for confidential review.
- The order follows a petition from Axios, WRAL, The News & Observer, WTVD, WUNC, Indy Week and The Assembly.
- A hearing in the case is scheduled for May 16.
Between the lines: Body and dash cam footage is restricted from public access in North Carolina unless a court orders its release.
Catch up quick: Wake County dismissed 180 court cases and counting, as of January, involving the trooper in January, after District Attorney Lorrin Freeman reviewed footage related to the crash and determined that the trooper's credibility as a witness in those cases was in question.
- It remains unclear, however, what the footage showed that made Freeman determine that Macario was unreliable.
- The footage captured "the acts and conversations of Trooper Macario" at the wreck, Freeman said, and indicated Macario had provided false or misleading information to Raleigh police officers responding to it, court records show.