Woman sentenced to four years in sex abuse case

Rachel Paige Crowe, 33, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison, five years of probation, $5,200 in fines and at least 15 years on the sex offender registry after pleading guilty to engaging in sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy on the Qualla Boundary in 2022. 

Cherokee man arrested in cold case murder

Nearly a decade after 26-year-old Marie Walkingstick Pheasant’s body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Cherokee’s Big Cove community, her husband Ernest Dwayne Pheasant, 46, has been arrested for her murder. 

Moody, Dever sentenced in sovereign citizen ‘phony writs’ case

Two defendants who pleaded guilty in federal court for their roles in communicating threats to dozens if not hundreds of elected officials, judges and public figures across the nation and across Western North Carolina have finally learned their fates, as U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger handed down sentences in Asheville on Aug. 24. 

Moody’s bond revoked for failure to appear

The Haywood County woman charged with 59 counts of interstate threats and conspiracy to kidnap after sending threatening letters to public officials will now await her trial in jail, after admitting on Oct. 26 that she’d violated the conditions of her pretrial release.

Moody fails to appear for hearing, taken back into custody

A Haywood County woman arrested by the FBI on Sept. 7 for making threats to public officials is back in custody after she failed to show up for her arraignment last week on 59 counts of interstate threats and conspiracy to kidnap.

Free on bond, Moody will face federal charges after FBI arrest

A Haywood County woman who admitted to serving phony writs that offered bounties on public officials will face federal charges after her arrest by the FBI on Sept. 7 but will be confined to home detention for now.

Phony writ from sham court offers bounties for national, state and local lawmakers

More than three dozen Western North Carolina judges, elected officials and municipal employees have been “served” with a bogus judgement from an illegitimate court that offers rewards for their capture if they do not immediately satisfy the terms.

No charges in Qualla Housing probe

More than three years after the cold February day when 26 FBI agents descended on the Qualla Housing Authority building in Cherokee, the U.S. Department of Justice informed the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians that its investigation yielded “no prosecutable cases,” and that the tribe can have the seized files back.

Resolution passed to dissolve Qualla Housing

The Cherokee Tribal Council took the first step toward dissolving the Qualla Housing Authority with a resolution passed Thursday, Dec. 6. 

Tribal housing reorganization still stalled

For the second time in less than a month, an ordinance that would abolish the Qualla Housing Authority and place all Cherokee’s housing services under the Department of Housing and Community Development has been tabled. 

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