Frat-threatening Wake DA ex-intern gets lenient plea | No more (UNC) digital voter ID | Activists' "emergency" response to ICE at Durham Courthouse
No. 134 — Jul. 20-Jul. 26, 2025
Former Wake DA intern gets lenient plea deal for showing up at NC State frats w/ handgun to "teach them a lesson"
Ex-law student pleads guilty to bringing gun to NC State in fraternity revenge plot - N&O
Zachary Paul Olson, 24, has been granted a "conditional discharge agreement" for a September 2024 incident in which he showed up to NC State's Greek Village with a Ruger Max-9 pistol, asking bystanders at a nearby Chipotle about which fraternity was "rapiest" so that he could "teach them a lesson."
Despite telling investigators that planned to kill people in "vigilante justice," Olson was only charged with carrying a concealed handgun and carrying a firearm on educational property. At the time, Olson was a third-year law student at Campbell University and an intern at the Wake County District Attorney’s Office, from which he was fired after the arrest.
On Wednesday, Olson plead guilty with a conditional discharge agreement, under which his Class I felony will be discharged if he completes two years of probation and 225 hours of community service.
ICYMI:
Immigrant arrested in Raleigh after years on run from WA statutory rape charges
Last week, Raleigh Police arrested a fugitive immigrant who had been evading law enforcement for over three years since authorities in King County, WA began investigating and eventually charged him with multiple counts of statutory child rape.
Follow-ups
$750,000 settlement over UNC professor's 2023 on-campus murder
NC to pay UNC professor’s family to settle wrongful death claim for campus killing - N&O
The State of North Carolina and the UNC Board of Governors have agreed to a $750,000 settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Professor Zijie Yan, as first uncovered by the News & Observer.
Yan's murder was believed contemporaneously to be an active shooting, leading to mass panic and a campus lockdown, but was later revealed to have been a targeted killing by 34-year-old graduate student Tailei Qi.
Qi was charged with first degree murder, but has been ruled unfit for trial due to untreated schizophrenia and has been indefinitely committed to Central Regional Hospital. If Yan is ever determined to have regained mental capacity, he will be returned to court to face the pending charges pursuant to NC GS Chapter 15A Article 56.
Although there is a persistent idea floating online that Yan's death had something to do with the Chinese Communist Party and/or the involvement of UNC in the origins of COVID-19, there does not appear to be any evidence that would even begin to satisfy Occam's razor over a more pedestrian explanation, besides Yan and Qi's shared Chinese nationality.
In contrast, the evidence does point to an interpersonal motive for the murder: Yan and Qi were on the same research team in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences (not a coronavirology lab), they were heard arguing before the murder, and Yan had made social media posts complaining about workplace conditions.
Previous Coverage:
UNC PhD student kills advisor on campus (No. 35 — Sep. 2, 2023)
Election lawsuit over UNC digital ID settled: no electronic voter ID
UNC ID election suit ends with joint voluntary dismissal - Carolina Journal
The now GOP-controlled state board of elections has agreed to a joint stipulation of dismissal in the lawsuit filed by the state and national GOP ahead of the 2024 election regarding the approval of UNC's digital student and employee IDs as a valid voter ID.
The lawsuit argued that the reference to an "identification card" in NC GS § 163‑166.16 unambiguously refers to a physical document, not digital credentials like the UNC One Card.
Although the previous Democrat-controlled board approved the UNC digital ID, the election officials who would be required to check the validity of the ID were provided with neither the training nor the equipment for the electronic verification used when swiping or tapping the ID on campus, reducing it's validity to nothing more than an easily manipulatable image on a phone screen.
An affidavit filed in the case demonstrated exactly that, how an individual with "no specialized background or expertise in digital photo editing." could use "readily available and accessible mobile applications to alter a UNC student electronic identification."
In the dismissal, the board agreed that electronic identification could not satisfy the voter ID statute, and that it would not approve such digital IDs in the future:
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is not authorized to allow any form of electronic identification to satisfy North Carolina voter photo identification requirement found in N.C.G.S. 163-166.16 and 163-230.1 other than photo identification that satisfies all of the conditions found in 163-166.16(a), unless and until the North Carolina General Assembly duly enacts law that has the effect of permitting electronic identification to satisfy the voter photo identification requirement, where such electronic identification is not already permitted by law to satisfy the requirement. The North Carolina State Board of Elections shall not promulgate any rule or numbered memorandum that purports to allow any electronic identification in violation of the foregoing sentence.
Previous Coverage:
Republicans sue over UNC digital ID approved for November election (No. 89 — Sep. 14, 2024)
Protest Watch
Durham activists respond to ICE activity at courthouse
Advocates in Durham protest against ICE presence: 'Constantly fearful of what's going on' - ABC11
ICE Agents at Durham Courthouse Spark Alarm, Protests - INDY
Approximately 70-90 anti-ICE protestors showed up at the Durham Courthouse in response to reports of immigration enforcement activity which were spread by individuals and groups such as Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam and Siembra NC.
While Allam claimed in a post that four ICE agents were present in plain clothes, ABC11 was told by the Durham Sheriff that only one uniformed agent was at the courthouse "looking for a convicted felon."
The activists including Allam and the Durham Workers Assembly report that the individual being sought by ICE did not show up for his court hearing.
Protesters returned to the courthouse Monday morning to "Protect Durham from ICE", according to one flyer shared by Triangle Radical Events, Triangle Mutual Aid, and Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub on Instagram. A post by Siembra NC claims an attendance of 150, though the image they share shows only approximately 50:
In addition to Allam, a Canadian-born Muslim, the Wednesday anti-ICE rally was featured Durham School Boardmember Natalie Beyer and Durham City Councilmember Javiera Caballero, a Chilean immigrant.
Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams also responded to the situation, claiming that ICE agents were "illegally kidnapping residents who have not committed crimes, tearing apart families and placing them in conditions worst that animals live in the wild, and deporting people to countries they have no association with."