North Carolina
North Carolina Supreme Court upholds law that allowed 2 more years for child sex abuse suits
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s highest court upheld on Friday a law that gave adult victims of child sexual abuse two additional years to seek civil damages, rejecting arguments that the temporary window violated constitutional protections for those facing claims that otherwise could no longer be pursued in court.
In a case involving a local school board sued by three former students years after an ex-high school coach was convicted of crimes against team members, the state Supreme Court ruled the General Assembly could enact a key provision within the 2019 SAFE Child Act that was also signed by then-Gov. Roy Cooper.
Before the law, victims of sexual abuse before age 18 effectively had until turning 21 to file such civil claims against perpetrators. Now such victims have until they’re age 28. But the issue before the court in the Gaston County case was the provision that gave other child sex abuse victims whose time period to sue ended the ability to file valid lawsuits for damages from January 2020 through December 2021.
Supporters of the provision said it allowed victims to ensure their abusers and institutions that allowed abuse to happen pay for the damage, and that abusers are called out publicly. At least 250 child sex abuse lawsuits were filed in North Carolina under that one-time lookback period, according to a board legal brief.
A divided state Court of Appeals panel last year had already upheld the two-year window as constitutional.
The board’s attorney had argued the lookback period violated the North Carolina Constitution by stripping away fundamental rights protected from retroactive alterations by the legislature. He also said that upholding the litigation window would make it impossible in some cases to mount vigorous defenses given the passage of time and destroyed records.
Writing Friday’s majority opinion, Chief Justice Paul Newby said a review of previous versions of the state constitution showed that a current provision barring “retrospective laws” expressly applies only to retroactive criminal and tax laws. And another constitutional provision that can be used to strike down laws that violate a person’s rights does not apply here, he added.
“Our precedents confirm that the General Assembly may retroactively amend the statute of limitations for tort claims,” Newby wrote, referring to civil actions in which someone seeks monetary compensation for harm by another.
The coach, Gary Scott Goins, was convicted of 17 sex-related crimes in 2014 and sentenced to at least 34 years in prison. The former student-athletes sued the Gaston County Board of Education and Goins in 2020, alleging he sexually assaulted them on multiple occasions. Goins was later dismissed as a defendant in the current lawsuit, according to court documents. Lawyers for the state help defend the 2019 law in court.
Since 2002, 30 states and the District of Columbia revived previously expired child sex abuse claims with limited or permanent expansions of claim periods, according to CHILD USA, a think tank advocating for children.
Associate Justice Allison Riggs recused herself from Friday’s case, as she wrote the Court of Appeals opinion while she served on the intermediate-level appeals court in 2023. That ruling was largely upheld Friday.
Associate Justice Anita Earls wrote her own opinion Friday that while supporting the outcome criticized harshly the majority for backing Newby’s methodology of evaluating whether a law is constitutional. Earls and Riggs are the two registered Democrats on the seven-member court.
Still, Earls wrote, “all justices would hold that the political branches may enact remedial legislation that empowers survivors of child sexual abuse to recover for the harm they endured at the hands of their abusers and those that enabled the abuse, through civil litigation of claims that would have otherwise been barred by the statute of limitations.”
The matter was one of five cases involving the SAFE Child Act in which oral arguments were heard by the Supreme Court on one day in September.
Three more of these cases were settled Friday. In one, the court agreed that the law’s language permitted lawsuits during the two-year window to be filed against both the perpetrator or the abuse as well as institutions linked to the offender.
That case involved a Catholic layperson accused of sexual abuse in the 1980s. A trial judge had previously ruled that the law’s language only permitted litigation against the alleged abuser, thus dismissed two Catholic entities as defendants. The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeals reversing that decision. Riggs also did not participate in that case.
TOPSAIL BEACH, N.C. (WBTV) – A North Carolina town is dealing with the death of a mayor for the second time in the past six months.
The most recent mayor of Topsail Beach, Morton Blanchard, died on March 2, a news release from the town said.
Blanchard had just taken office near the end of 2024. Prior to his five months as mayor, Blanchard spent more than a decade as a town commissioner in Topsail Beach, and before that served in local government in Rose Hill, N.C.
The town said Blanchard worked on “many initiatives,” but worked particularly hard on trying to bring public sewer service to residents.
Less than six months before Blanchard died, the mayor before him, Steve Smith, passed away on Sept. 13, 2024.
Smith was a “visionary leader who had a passion for serving his community,” the town said in a release. He was said to have been committed to preserving Topsail Beach’s unique character and natural beauty.
According to their obituaries, both Blanchard and Smith were 73 years old when they died. The town did not say how either died.
Sister-station WECT reported that Mayor Pro-Tem Frank Braxton will fill in as acting mayor.
Topsail Beach is in Pender County, a little less than an hour north of Wilmington.
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A bucktoothed llama that spends his days comforting chronically ill children at a North Carolina camp founded by NASCAR royalty has been crowned the world’s oldest llama in captivity.
At 27 years and more than 250 days, the selfie- and snuggle-loving llama called Whitetop dethroned Dalai Llama, the Guinness World Records announced last week. Dalai lived on a ranch in Albuquerque and was announced as the oldest in 2023 shortly after his 27th birthday.
Whitetop was donated to the Victory Junction camp in 2006, just two years after race car driver Kyle Petty — the son of NASCAR great Richard Petty — and his family founded the camp in honor of Petty’s own son, Adam, who was 19 when he was killed in a 2000 crash while practicing for a race.
The year-round free camp sits on 84 acres (34 hectares) in the Petty hometown of Randleman, North Carolina, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) west of Raleigh. It’s designed for children with conditions that include cancer, kidney and heart disease, cerebral palsy, Spina Bifida and an array of neurological and physical disabilities.
Whitetop has become known for his relaxed, sweet and empathetic personality. His go-to move is to lie still while campers pet him, which can comfort children and give them important sensory input, said Billie Davis, the camp’s barn director.
“He really gets to help campers come out of their shell when they interact with him,” she said. “He can be kind of intimidating at first, but once they come over to him and love on him and pet on him, they just realize how sweet he is.”
One of his best friends is a miniature highland cow named Gus-Gus, who tends to forget Whitetop is a llama and enjoys jumping on him. Whitetop also likes to roll in fresh wood chippings, chomp on soaked alfalfa and pose for selfies.
“If you try to take a picture of him from the side, he’s not into it,” Davis said. “He will, like scoot in there and try to get his face from a side profile so that it’s like he’s cheesing.”
Davis attributes Whitetop’s long life to great veterinary care and exercise, as well as it simply loving his job.
The average life span for a llama is 15 years, according to the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance.
Whitetop has developed arthritis in his twilight years but otherwise is very healthy, said Davis. And the only times the llama becomes upset is when Gus-Gus, along with two miniature donkeys named Jed and Jethro, leave him alone.
Stephanie Wilkerson, 33, first went to the camp’s family weekend in 2006 after she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She said she was initially a little nervous around Whitetop but soon realized petting him and giving him hugs made her feel better.
“When I started stroking him more and more and more, I got more relaxed,” said Wilkerson, who lives in Thomasville, North Carolina.
With Whitetop’s newfound fame in longevity, the camp has started selling limited edition T-shirts displaying Whitetop with sunglasses and the words, “Still Spit’n.” The proceeds go to the camp.
Although Davis said Whitetop would like people to know not all llamas spit on you.
“Typically llamas only spit when they are scared, uncomfortable or territorial over something,” she said. “And he just loves his job so much that he doesn’t do it.”
North Carolina
North Carolina rolls to season-high 6th straight win, beats Virginia Tech behind season-high 15 3s
BLACKSBURG, Va. — – Ven-Allen Lubin collected his first double-double as a Tar Heel and Ian Jackson hit five of North Carolina’s season-high 15 3-pointers while scoring 19 points in a 91-59 victory over Virginia Tech on Tuesday night.
The Tar Heels (20-11, 13-6 ACC) extended their season-high win streak to six as they prepare to end the regular season at home against No. 2 Duke on Saturday. North Carolina won 20 games in a season for the 65th time.
Lubin, whose previous stops were at Notre Dame and Vanderbilt, had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Jackson was 5 of 8 from the arc. Seth Trimble scored 17 points, RJ Davis 15 and Drake Powell 13. Elliot Cadeau had 12 assists.
The Tar Heels made 15 of 28 3-pointers and shot 59% overall.
Jaydon Young and Ben Burnham scored 12 points each for the Hokies (13-17, 8-11), who shot 38%. Virginia Tech’s leading scorer and rebounder, Tobi Lawal, was on the bench with a lower leg injury. He also missed the Hokies’ previous game.
The Hokies led by two when North Carolina went on a 25-6 run over the final seven minutes of the first half, capped when Lubin fed Trimble in the lane for a dunk as time ran out for a 46-29 lead. Davis had nine of his 15 first-half points and Trimble seven of his 12 in that run.
Jackson made consecutive 3-pointers in a 15-0 run that produced a 34-point bulge with 12 minutes remaining.
The Tar Heels now prepare the Blue Devils, who they lost to 87-70 on Feb. 1 at Duke. Virginia Tech travels to play No. 11 Clemson, also Saturday.
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