v & 1 THE I ERQUIMANS • * . X 3V E E K LY : %.M of 1 v B Kb Lane attends conservation workshop, 6 "News from Next Door 1 ' WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2016 50 cents Jackson Brother FOUND GUILTY Given 18 to 34 years in prison BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor One of six brothers ac ¬ cused of having sex with their sister — the only one not to accept a plea bar gain — was found guilty last week and sentenced to between 18 and 37 years in prison. Plea bargains allow de fendants to accept guilt for some crime, but escape punish A. JACKSON ment for others. District Attorney Andrew Womble declined to say what the plea bargain offer was for Aaron Jackson, but con firmed Jackson rejected it. In court Tuesday Aaron said “I’d rather get 80 years in prison than do two or three (years in prison) knowing I am innocent.” A day later, after about three hours of deliberat ing, a 12-member jury said he wasn’t innocent. • Tire jury found him guilty on three counts of second-degree sexual of fense. They came back with not guilty verdicts on two more sexual offense charges and one count of incest. Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett sentenced STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS Aaron Jackson and five of his brothers have been found guilty of abusing their younger sister in this home on Chapanoke Road. Jackson to between 73 months and 148 months for each crime. Tillett could have had the sen tences run concurrently - meaning he would serve all the sentences at the same time and be out after 73 months. Instead Tillett ordered tlie sentences run consec utively, or back-to-back. That means Jackson will serve 73 months on the first charge, then start serving 73 months on the second charge and then another 73 months. Tillett did leave the door opening to reviewing the sentence at a later date. Perquimans County Sheriff Eric Tilley,put it this way. Tilley said Aaron “rolled the dice” by not taking the plea and lost. Many of the sex crimes occurred at the family compound, a 5-acre place on Chapanoke Road. The victim in the case, now 18 years old, spoke after the guilty verdicts and asked the judge io give her brother the lighter sentence. That prompted meetings between her and lawyers. The victim came back and told Judge Tillett that she didn’t want her feelings to influence his decision. Attorney Danny Dono hue, who represented Jackson, also urged the judge to run the sentences concurrently, pointing out that his client had never been arrested before. He said if sentenced on the higher end, Aaron would end up serving more prison time than brothers who pled guilty to more egregious acts. The old est brother, Eric, won’t be released from prison until 2027. Womble said the plea bargains were offered to spare the victim from the trauma of testifying against her family. Womble said the sen tence handed down by Judge Tillett was appro priate given Jackson never accepted responsibility for his crimes while his other five brothers did. “I am satisfied we were able to secure, some amount of justice for the victim,” Womble said. “I am saddened at the events that led us to this point and saddened we had to have the victim come back and relive what happened.” Sheriff Tilley said jus tice was done. “I think the jury’s deci sion was not quite what the state was looking for, but the sentence the judge handed down sent a harsh message,” Tilley said. The deal offered Aaron’s twin brother Benjamin earned* him a See JACKSON, 2 Students exposed to career options BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor While the traditional track to a four-year college degree remains, Perquimans schools are increasing efforts to show students there are other op tions. Jill Cohen coordinates the Career and Technical Educa tion (CTE) programs for the school system. Not only is the school system increasing the number of programs of fered, it’s offering more at an early age. lite idea is to raise stu dents that are career and col lege ready. “Our plan is developed around the economic health of Perquimans,” Cohen said. “Seventy percent of our em ployed residents work out side of our county with 14 percent working outside of our state. We need to prepare students for the workplace within a 75-mile radius of Hertford as we transition from a rural community to a bedroom community. “Schools have been work ing in the past 30 years fo cusing on getting a four-year degree, but many of the jobs in northeastern North Caro lina don’t require one,” Co hen said. “For some it doesn’t make sense to go to school for four years when you can’t get a job.” Cohen brought in Tim Nor man to speak to students last school year. He’s the ex ecutive director of the N.C. State board of Examiners of Electrical Contractors and he encouraged them to consider the profession. See STUDENTS, 2 Planning Board delays action on wind power project BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor The Perquimans Plan ning Board reviewed plans for a $300 million wind power project on July 12 but decided it wanted more time to consider some of tire information. The next meeting is set for Aug. 2. Apex Clean Energy is seeking a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the proj ect known as TImbermill. About 17,000 acres of Per quimans and Chowan land would be leased, most of it owned by Weyerhaeuser The county allows wind power projects, but con siders them in a special category, hence the CUP process. In February the Perqui mans County Commission made changes to its wind rules.' An outside consul tant reviewed the Apex CUP document and con cluded it satisfied the Per quimans ordinance. However Clarion Asso ciates, a Chapel Hill firm, suggested commissioners should consider adding some conditions if it de cides to approve the proj ect. Opponents of the Apex project maintain the Clari on report is not an indepen dent study of the project, but simply a review of the data that Apex provided. Chad W. Essick, a part ner in the Raleigh law firm Poyner Spruill, raised a number of questions that he feels need to be an swered. Among them are health issues and the po tential that property values See DELAY, 4 Opponents: Wind project is flawed Chowan to review project plan July 26 BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor The lawyer for opponents of a proposed new wind project in Perquimans and Chowan county says, there are flaws in the application and important things that are being overlooked - like property values. In an e-mail response, Chad W. Essick, a partner in the Raleigh law firm Poyner Spruill, raised a number of questions that he feels need to be answered. “Why has the applicant not prepared an emer gency response plan or a traffic management plan in conjunction with the CUP (Conditional Use Permit) application? Why won’t the applicant agree to a proper ty value guarantee for neigh boring property owners if they assert there will be no adverse impact on property values?” The project is expected to have a service life of 20 to 30 years. A decommission ing study commissioned by Apex as part of the CUP process estimates he cost to remove the structures will be between $7.3 million and $10.9 million. Essick wonders if that is See OPPONENTS, 7 BY REGGIE PONDER Chowan Herald The Chowan County Planning Board will meet next week to review the Conditional Use Applica tion (CUP) for the Timber- mill Wind Project. The review by the plan ning board is advisory. The actual decision on the per mit application by Charlot tesville, Va.-based Apex Clean Energy Inc. will be made by the Chowan County Board of Commis sioners following a quasi judicial hearing — prob ably late next month. The Chowan Planning Board meeting will be July 26 at 7 p.m. in the Chowan County Office Building on Freemason Street. Apex has proposed a utility-scale wind energy facility in the Bear Swamp and Center Hill areas of Chowan and Perquimans counties. The planning board meeting will include a staff report, which will introduce the project and the application, and also will include a presentation from Apex and an oppor tunity for public comment on the permit application. See CHOWAN, 7 Businessman says area catfish industry threatened BY REGGIE PONDER Chowan Herald Chowan County officials have gone on record in op position to a federal regula tory change that a local busi nessman man says threatens the livelihood of area fisher men and other workers in 6 89076 47144 2 the seafood industry. The Chowan County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously at its July 5 meeting to send to the congressional delegation a letter supporting Senate Resolution 28, which would move catfish inspections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture back to the Food and Drug Administration. “The current inspection program costs $700,000 an nually; however, the USDA inspection program would cost approximately $30 mil lion to be established and another $14 million for an nual operations,” the board’s letter states. “The proposed regulations were designed to give protections on im ported catfish; however, native catfish are also be ing affected. Catfishing in Northeast North Carolina provides the livelihood of over 600 families. Because of the potential for detrimental impact on local economies, we ask for our consideration and support of Senate Reso lution 28.” Ricky Nixon of Murray L. Nixon Fishery in Rocky Hock said this week that in order to comply with the USDA inspections process he would have to build a new facility to process cat- fish. That would not be cost- effective for his operation, he said. “With FDA we haven’t ever had a problem,” Nixon said. The FDA process has not failed to protect pub lic health and safety, so the move to USDA is unwarrant ed, he said. Nixon said there had nev er been any health-related problems with the area’s wild catfish industry under the FDA inspections system. “We have been cutting cat- fish for 50 years and never had a problem,” Nixon said. Nixon said if the change becomes permanent it prob ably would cause him to cut his workforce in half, “be cause I would have to get out of the catfish business.” That in turn would put commercial fishermen in the area out of the catfish business as well, he said, because those commercial fishermen catch catfish would no longer have access to a processor. “We’re the only wild cat- fish processor in the state,” Nixon said. He said his facil ity processes catfish caught See CATFISH, 2

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