Authorities Capture Escaped NC Prisoner

The NC Department of Public Safety announced today that Alcohol Law Enforcement agents, together with officers with the Department of Corrections, captured an escaped prisoner in Halifax County.

Fifty-one year-old James Ladd escaped from a prison farm outside Tillery Prison on Sunday. His abandoned tractor was discovered before noon. After four days on the loose, agents captured Ladd near the prison farm where he escaped.

Ladd was imprisoned for the shooting deaths of two Yadkin County men in 1981. He was serving three consecutive life sentences at Tillery Prison, which is a minimum security prison. No other details were immediately available.

WANTED: Mecklenburg County Parole/Probation Absconders

According to the NC Dept of Corrections website, Mecklenburg County currently has 252 probation/ parole absconders that are wanted by law enforcement.  All 252 persons have active warrants out of Mecklenburg County.

If you know the immediate whereabouts of any of these persons, please dial 911.  Otherwise, please call the DPS Division of Adult Corrections at 888-646-0024 as shown in the photos on the NC DOC website.

Please help law enforcement and the Dept of Corrections get these parole/probation absconders off the streets today!

NC DOC Probation Officer Indicted for Civil Rights Violations

The Department of Justice announced that North Carolina Department of Correction’s Division of Community Corrections Probation Officer Willie James Steele Jr., 47, was indicted yesterday on civil rights charges for violating the constitutional rights of a female probationer that he was supervising by coercing her into sexual acts on two separate occasions.

Steele was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and one count of using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

According to the indictment filed in the Western District of North Carolina, the Division of Community Corrections supervised offenders serving state probation in the state of North Carolina and provided courtesy supervision for offenders residing in this state but who had committed criminal offenses in other states. Steele supervised the victim, who had had her probation transferred from another state, and had the authority to recommend to a court or other agency that the victim be incarcerated or otherwise sanctioned if she violated the conditions of her probation.

The indictment alleges that Steele engaged in acts that resulted in bodily injury to the victim and constituted aggravated sexual abuse, and that Steele used and carried a firearm during and in relation to that offense. It also alleges that Steele deprived the victim of her constitutional right to bodily integrity on a second occasion.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenny Smith from the Western District of North Carolina and U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Shan Patel.

Individuals who have additional information or believe they may have been a victim of Steele’s conduct are encouraged to call the FBI Charlotte Office at 704-672-6100. Willie James Steele, Jr. worked at State Probation office on Executive Center Drive.