New Details Emerge in Sycamore Brewing Owner Child Rape Case

New Details Emerge in Sycamore Brewing Owner Child Rape Case

Law enforcement is releasing more details about a crime that has rocked Charlotte’s craft beer scene and left at least one young girl and her family victimized. News broke Thursday that Justin Brigham, co-owner of Charlotte-based Sycamore Brewing, had been arrested early that morning in Stanfield outside of a house where police say he raped a young girl. 

On Thursday evening, the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) put out a release stating that police responded to a 911 call from the Stanfield home shortly after midnight on Thursday reporting that an unknown adult man had been found in a 13-year-old girl’s bedroom by her parents. 

Responding officers found a fully naked Brigham, 44, in a car outside the home and detained him without incident. They charged Brigham with first-degree burglary, statutory rape of a child by an adult, and indecent liberties with a child. During a court appearance later that morning, he was ordered to be held on a $10-million secured bond. SCSO partnered with CMPD on Thursday to search Brigham’s south Charlotte home. 

During a press conference on Friday, Stanly County Sheriff Jeff Crisco told media that Brigham is believed to have met the girl, whom he knew to be 13 years old, through a social media app, according to reporting from WSOC’s Joe Bruno. If Brigham does post bail, he will not be allowed to contact the victim or use social media. 

As the news developed on Thursday, Brigham’s wife and Sycamore co-founder Sarah, using her maiden name Taylor, put out a statement on Instagram that read, “To our employees, customers, and partners, I am devastated by the charges against Justin and the pain this has inflicted on our family and others. Effective immediately, I am assuming full leadership of the company. Justin is divesting all of his interest and will have no further involvement. Our team remains my highest priority as a Mom and business owner.”

Comments were turned off for that and most past posts by Sycamore, though many expressed their disappointment with the statement elsewhere on social media, pointing out that Taylor did not acknowledge the victim in her statement. Crisco said Friday that the department has no reason to believe Taylor was aware of Brigham’s crimes as the investigation continues into whether there were other victims. 

Fallout from the arrest was swift as bars, tap rooms and grocery stores around Charlotte and even statewide announced they would discontinue selling Sycamore products. 

Light Rail Stabbing Victim Faces DV Charges, McFadden Decries DHS Finger-Pointing

Disturbing allegations against the victim of a stabbing that occurred on the light rail last Friday have come to light after he raised more than $115,000 in a GoFundMe campaign. 

After being released from the hospital, the stabbing victim was arrested this week on charges that he assaulted a woman in October and threatened to kill her and her family.

At a court appearance on Thursday morning, prosecutors said the man punched a woman in the face during an argument, causing her to strike a wall and pass out. She later awoke with facial fractures, according to reporting from WSOC’s Hunter Sáenz. As of Thursday morning, the man was being held on a $2-million bond. 

Meanwhile, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden dismissed attempts by the federal government to blame Democratic lawmakers and local law enforcement for the stabbing, which was carried out by an undocumented immigrant who had previously been deported twice but reentered the country. 

“In their own statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said: ‘The heinous stabbing by this twice-removed illegal alien should have NEVER happened.’ On this point, DHS is correct,” McFadden wrote in a release on Thursday. 

“It should never have happened. But that is precisely because the same agency, DHS-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), relied twice on the civil detainer process to remove Oscar Gerardo Solarzano, for example. That civil process is the very mechanism that allowed him to be deported twice without judicial oversight, only for him to return. Solarzano was never held accountable for his past crimes because of the civil deportation process.” 

He went on to clarify that this was Solarzano’s first arrest in Mecklenburg County. 

“Very little, if any at all, have challenged DHS-ICE on why it chooses a civil process, one the agency knows is ineffective, over the federal criminal option,” McFadden wrote. “Instead, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office is routinely positioned as the scapegoat, a convenient distraction from federal agencies’ own failures.”

Read more: How Iryna Zarutska’s Killing Sparked a National Outrage

Missing Woman Found Dead in Washington Heights

Thursday saw a tragic end to the weeklong search for 31-year-old Frezja Baker, as her body was found in her car in a lot behind the Glorious Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Historic West End’s Washington Heights neighborhood. 

Baker’s body was found only about 1.5 miles from the gas station where she was last seen on Dec. 4. A CMPD release announcing her death stated that the cause is not currently unknown. 

Baker was reported missing Saturday and was reportedly last seen at a Mobil gas station on LaSalle Street near the I-77 interchange on Dec. 4, according to CMPD. Friends and family told WCNC that it isn’t like her to not answer phone calls or messages for an extended period of time and that they took the search efforts into their own hands after not getting much communication from CMPD.

The department did put out a release about Baker on Tuesday evening, describing her clothing and sharing photos from inside the Mobil. While not yet officially ruled a homicide, anyone with information about Baker’s death is asked to call 704-432-8477 (TIPS) and speak directly to a Homicide Unit detective. 

Missiongathering Church Rattles the Right with ICE Nativity Scene

A local Missiongathering Church congregation made headlines this week when they put up a nativity scene featuring mannequins dressed as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with handcuffs closing in on Jesus, Mary and Joseph in front of their Optimist Hall location. 

A man was filmed knocking the mannequins down and tearing anti-ICE signage out of the church’s lawn, though church leaders say they don’t plan to press charges because nothing was damaged. 

Missiongathering Charlotte, part of a countrywide “Progressive, Inclusive, and Anti-Racist Christian Movement within the Disciples of Christ,” wrote an explanation of the display on its Facebook page on Tuesday, saying that they partnered with Taskforce Artist Collective to answer the question, “If Jesus were born today, would the Holy Family be welcomed or detained?” 

“Every Advent, we remember that Jesus was born into an occupied land, a world where imperial power ruled by fear, surveillance, and force. The Holy Family knew what it was to run, to hide, to flee, to survive … The Gospel tells us plainly: Mary, Joseph, and Jesus became refugees. The fled state violence, They crossed borders, in desperation. The Christmas story is an immigrant story. 

“Depicting the Holy Family and the Magi being arrested by ICE is not a stunt,” the statement continued. “It is a modern parable — a way to make visible what our neighbors endure daily. When we place the Nativity inside real systems of harm, we see the Gospel more clearly.” 

Family Sues Over Erasure of Ardrey Kell Charlie Kirk Memorial

Parents of an Ardrey Kell High School student are suing the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education for allegedly violating their child’s First Amendment rights in removing a Charlie Kirk memorial message on a spirit rock at the school. 

Following the right-wing political activist’s assassination at Utah Valley University in September, the student wrote “Live Like Charlie Kirk; John 11:25” and “Freedom 1776” on a spirit rock outside the school. A staff member painted over the message, Queen City News reported. 

The parents claim they received permission from school officials to paint the message on the rock. Still, the district reportedly accused the student who created it of a student conduct violation for vandalism and helped launch a criminal investigation. 

This isn’t the first time the rock has been the center of controversy. In 2020, students painted an approved Black Lives Matter mural on the rock only for some unknown suspect to vandalize the mural by crossing out the names of Black victims of police violence.