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City revises Grey Mill agreement

Henderson County News

Sapphire man sentenced to 50 years in prison for sex offenses

A 68-year-old Sapphire man was sentenced to almost 50 years in prison after pleading guilty in Transylvania County Superior Court on Monday to multiple counts of first-degree sex offense with a child and to indecent liberties with a child, District Attorney Greg Newman announced. Judge Gregory Horne sentenced Charles Clayton Moore, to 49 years, 6 months in prison after the guilty plea. Assistant District Attorney Beth Dierauf presented the facts of the case to the judge and the evidence is that Moore committed various sex acts with at least five of his grandchildren from 1999 through 2011.  Most of the children ranged in ages from 3 to 8.  The sex offenses included incidents of oral sex and multiple occurrences of sexual contact where the defendant touched the children and had them touch him.  Most of these crimes occurred in the defendant’s home when the grandchildren spent time there. Several persons from the community, as well as the defendant’s family, read prepared statements to the court.  Some advocated mercy for Moore, while others asked for stringent penalties.  The defendant apologized to his family and made a short plea to the court for leniency.  The District Attorney asked for a sentence that would guarantee the defendant never gets out of prison.  “Mr. Moore hurt a lot of people and I fear that much of the harm to his grandchildren may leave permanent scars,” Newman said.  “We are satisfied with the sentence imposed by Judge Horne.  Certainly the community, and definitely the defendant’s family, are safer now.  Mr. Moore will spend the rest of his life in a North Carolina prison.  I hope his family, and in particular the child victims, can find a way to cope with what they have experienced." The case was investigated by the office of Transylvania County Sheriff David Mahoney.  After an initial disclosure was made by one of the grandchildren during the summer of 2017, Moore contacted the sheriff’s department and disclosed, in general terms, that he had committed crimes against members of his family.   He agreed to meet at the sheriff’s office with his pastor where he confessed to his crimes.  Detectives Geoff Bishop and Wade Abram conducted the interviews of the defendant, the victims, and their parents. “My office will continue to aggressively prosecute persons who abuse children in any manner,” Newman said.  “A community’s strength is measured by the respect for the rule of law and by how well it protects its most vulnerable citizens.  Our kids have to be protected and I appreciate the cooperation of the victims, their parents and other relatives, and certainly our law enforcement officers in the successful outcome in this very tragic episode."     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (193)

You won't want to miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

City praises two-man crew for Hurricane Florence work

In the wake of Hurricane Florence, the city of New Bern found that it suffered more than $100 million in damage with close to 5,000 homes and businesses being affected.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Commissioners open to new plans for HHS

Henderson County School Board members are united when it comes to the new plans for Hendersonville High School and HHS alumni and faculty have renewed confidence that the most intractable issue in local politics is on track at last. Even county commissioners say they’re open to the new plans, which they’re expecting to see in January.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Playhouse announces 2019 season

FLAT ROCK — While they didn’t have to make a big production out of it, they decided to make a big production out of it.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

William Barber bringing 'Poor People's' campaign to Hendersonville

William Barber II, the civil rights activist who founded the Moral Majority movement, is bringing his national Poor People's Campaign to Hendersonville.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Cooper appoints District Court judge

Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday announced the appointment of C.W. “Mack” McKeller as District Court Judge for the Judicial District 29B, serving Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties. McKeller will fill the vacancy created by Chief District Court Judge Athena Fox Brooks, who was appointed to a Special Superior Court judgeship earlier this year. McKeller served in the U. S. Navy for 13 years as a lieutenant commander and commanding officer. He is also the founding member of McKeller Law Firm in Brevard, representing clients in civil and criminal matters at the trial and appellate level. McKeller received his Juris Doctor from Campbell University School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University. In July the District 29B Bar Association nominated five attorneys for the vacancy. Henderson County Clerk of Superior Court Kim Gasperson-Justice received the most votes, 52, followed by Jason R. Hayes and McKeller, the only Democrat, with 44 each. Other nominees were Robert P. Brackett Jr., who received 41 votes, and Ryan A. Bradley, with 24 votes. The list also included three Republicans — Gasperson-Justice, Hayes and Bradley — an unaffiliated voter, Brackett. Cooper's press secretary, Ford Porter, pointed out that Cooper has been bipartisan in judicial appointments. He appointed Brooks, a Republican, to the Special Superior Court seat. And in the batch of appointments announced Monday he also  appointed Annette Turik, a Republican, to the District Court bench in the jurisdiction serving Wayne, Lenoir and Greene counties. Cooper has one more appointment to a Henderson County-based judgeship. Chief Superior Court Judge Mark Powell retired from his seat on Oct. 1. McKeller has been practicing criminal and family law in Brevard since 1995. When they go to work in a courtroom lawyers “want to feel that their time is not wasted and they want a fair result and they want somebody that’s going to listen to them and treat their clients like people,” he said. Peering at the list of eight lawyers who applied, McKeller said they would all serve credibly. “I think we want someone who has experience. We want somebody who’s reasonably well-versed in the law and we want somebody who’s going to treat everybody that walks in that door like a human being. I promise that every day I’ll treat everybody who walks in that door (behind the judge’s bench) and that door (the public part of the courtroom) like a human being and I’ll respect everybody’s time and talent.”     Read Story »

Henderson County News

⚡️ REVIEW: They're pickin' and the audience is a'grinnin'

I thought I knew what to expect when I sat down for “Pickin’ and a Grinnin’” Saturday night at the Flat Rock Playhouse.The title suggested to me plenty of banjo and fiddle, lots of country twang and some cornball country laughs a la “Hee Haw.” I was only half right.There’s plenty of fiddle, lots of country twang and plenty of grinnin’, for sure, as in, every time the inimitable Nat Zegree opened his mouth. But there’s no banjo at all and the closest we get to bluegrass is Alabama’s “Mountain Music” and the genre’s classic, “Rockytop.”“Pickin’ and a Grinnin’” is better described as classic country revue, with the appropriate visual cue on the mic stands of the Flat Rock Playhouse Opry, mimicking the Grand Ol Opry, the granddaddy of all country stages.And grand it is.Co-created by Eric Scott Anthony and Ben Hope, the show is a 2-hour-and-20 minute feast of hits ranging from country’s early days (Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues,” Elvis’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky”) to the ‘80s.Broken up into five acts — really categories— the show brings us Honky Tonkers, Heart Breakers, Love Makers, Songwriters and Outliers and features tributes to 29 performers and their best known or at least better known hits. If I could feature only one George Strait song it would be “The Chair,” though Anthony and Hope opted for the jauntier “Unwound.” It was an odd choice, too, to cover Emmy Lou Harris’s version of Steve Earle’s “Guitar Town” in the second song of the night, given that Emmy Lou recorded many better known hits and that “Guitar Town” is Steve Earle’s signature record. These are quibbles, though, in a critique of a performance that builds with energy and affection right up to a crescendo of an encore that has patrons hootin’, hollerin’ and stamping their feet. (More on that later.)Go ahead and toss out your favorite country artists from the Fifties through the Eighties and I’ll tell you whether they’re on stage at the Playhouse. Yep, they’re there. You’ve got George Jones — OK, one last quibble, “She Thinks I Still Care” instead of “The Race is On” — Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Carrie Underwood, The Judds, Clink Black, Ronnie Milsap, June Carter and Johnny Cash, Randy Travis, Allison Krauss, Diamond Rio, Moon Mullican (huh? Thought I knew ’em all), Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, The Eagles, Alabama. Skeeter Davis and Jerry Lee Lewis.You don’t have to love country to like this show but if you love country you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven. And if you think you don’t know country well enough to get into it, that doesn’t matter either. Most of these songs have been in the cultural bloodstream so long you’ll surprise yourself by humming along and singing the refrain.The eight musicians cover them all, with three (or more) guitars, Sarah Hund’s fiddle, Paul Babelay on drums and the marvelous Russ Weaver on the essential pedal steel, proving that while you can do a fantastic country show without banjo, you gotta have pedal steel. (I know, I know, Alabama says “If you’re gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band,” but we were in North Carolina and besides, they had a fiddle.)Ms. Hund and Katie Barton Hope do a terrific job covering the female greats of country, giving their best shot at the high-level challenges of Dolly’s “Jolene” and Winona Judd’s “Why Not Me.” Similarly, Hope, Eric Scott Anthony and Zegree pay wonderful tribute to the male stars, even when faced with the unmatchable voices of Vince Gill, Hank and Johnny Cash (“like a voice from the middle of the earth” as Dylan put it). But that’s the thing about these singer-musicians. They don’t try to be the country stars they're honoring. They celebrate them by covering their songs with grace and humility and often jubilation. On a raised platform behind the piano, Nat Zegree is a constant threat to break into some zaniness. The band interrupts his impromptu comic bits. (At Saturday night’s show, when he finally gets to tell his joke, he blows the lead-in, making it somehow all the more jolly.) Twelve songs in, Nat was brandishing a third instrument, this time a tenor saxophone, after banging on the piano and strumming a rhythm guitar. The only staging I would change would be to angle his piano so the audience can see him punishing the keys in the show-stopping finale, “Great Balls of Fire.” Oh, what a Nat!But wait, there’s more!The nine-minute encore alone is worth the price of admission. A lightning round of upbeat and fun hits opens with Alabama’s “Mountain Music” (we’re in the mountains, right?) and rips through eight more mega-hits that had the whole crowd stompin’ and hollerin’. I won’t give them all away but — mini-spoiler alert — they’re from stars you know: Willie, Waylon, Tammy, Dolly, Acuff, Garth.They brought down the barn on Saturday night. There was plenty of grinnin’ as the last twangy note faded into the October sky and the grin stayed with us all the way home.           Read Story »

Hendersonville News

James Volk, pediatrician, volunteer and city's 'First Man,' dies at age 72

Dr. James Volk, a pediatrician who expanded children’s medical care in Hendersonville and treated hundreds of patients during numerous medical missions abroad, volunteered in civic endeavors at home and stood steadfast with Mayor Barbara Volk as Hendersonville’s First Gentleman, died early Saturday of pancreatic cancer. He was 72.   Read Story »

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