Copyright 2006 The News and Observer
By SAMIHA KHANNA
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
DURHAM, N.C. — Outgoing Carrboro Fire Chief Rodney Murray has been charged again with violating a court order to stay away from a former girlfriend.
Durham police said someone reported seeing Murray near the Chownings Street home of Gina Ambrosecchia about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday. Murray was taken into custody Thursday morning and was being held with his bail set at $1 million.
The arrest came a week after Murray, 57, pleaded guilty in a Durham court to two counts of violating a domestic violence protective order taken out by Ambrosecchia.
At the Jan. 19 hearing, a Durham District Court judge granted a new yearlong protective order that required Murray to stay away from the subdivision where Ambrosecchia lives.
But prosecutors gave Murray a deal. If he could prove over the next six months that he could leave Ambrosecchia alone, he would remain free of a criminal conviction. If Murray did try to see the woman, prosecutors could seek consecutive sentences on the guilty pleas, a prosecutor said.
Murray’s recent legal troubles began Christmas Eve when he was accused of making a harassing phone call to Ambrosecchia’s house, then speeding away from a police officer who tried to pull his car over. Later, Murray crashed his car in the same neighborhood and was charged with driving while impaired.
Murray has been on medical leave after suffering a heart attack in November. He has been Carrboro’s fire chief for 12 years and worked for the Chapel Hill Fire Department for 25 years before that. Earlier this month, he told Carrboro officials that he would retire effective March 1. He will remain on full-time medical leave until then.
(Staff writer Benjamin Niolet contributed to this report.)