Local

Charges tossed for 2 men accused of toppling ‘Silent Sam’ statue on UNC campus

By Associated Press

FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2018, file photo, police stand guard after the Confederate statue known as Silent Sam was toppled by protesters on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. The chancellor of North Carolina's flagship public university said Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, the school will remove the pedestal where the Confederate statue stood until protesters tore it down. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

By Associated Press

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Prosecutors dismissed charges against two men who appealed their convictions in the 2018 toppling of a Confederate statue on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall says the decision was based on having to prioritize cases piling up in the Orange County court system since it was shut down by the COVID-19 outbreak in March, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.

PAST COVERAGE: UNC uproots historic 'Silent Sam' pedestal from campus overnight

Raul Arce Jimenez and Shawn Birchfield-Finn, along with three others, were charged with injury to real property, misdemeanor riot and defacing a public statue or monument after the statue known as Silent Sam came was brought down in August 2018.

UNC placed Silent Sam in storage after the protest and removed the statue’s base in January 2019.

Protesters topple Confederate statue 'Silent Sam' on UNC campus Protesters topple Confederate statue 'Silent Sam' on UNC campus

District Court Judge Lunsford Long dismissed the charges against two defendants in April 2019, but convicted Jimenez and Birchfield-Finn of all three charges and and sentenced them to 24 hours in jail. Their attorney, Scott Holmes, appealed the case to Superior Court and requested a jury trial, delaying the sentence.

Holmes said he received an email Tuesday notifying him that the cases, which were scheduled for a Feb. 15 hearing, had been dismissed.

Cox Media Group

Most Read