The Roanoke Rapids Police Department reported the following:

• A New Bern man was arrested Thursday for the theft of a $25,000 sound board from the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.

Chief Jeff Hinton said Jason Louis Lis, 29, was arrested by detectives Charles Vaught and Corey Dixon and charged with felonious larceny and possession of stolen goods.

Lis was arrested in Havelock by city and Havelock detectives. 

The sound board was recovered. Lis went before a magistrate in Havelock for bond purposes.

• Richard James Bain II, 71, of Roanoke Rapids was arrested around noon Thursday by Officer T.L. Mason and charged with being a sex offender on school property.

Hinton said Bain was on Manning Elementary School property to pick up a friend's child and had a female accompany him. His court date is April 7 and he went to jail on $10,000 bond.

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Lafayette Gatling was given a flexible option to settle his debt with the city, its attorney, Gilbert Chichester, said today.

In what Chichester said was not a “drop dead letter” the city would allow Gatling to pay his February debt on the Roanoke Rapids Theatre and allow him additional time to make his March payment.

Chichester would not divulge further terms of the proposal citing ongoing negotiations. He did confirm the terms the city is offering are fair to Gatling as well as the city. If the undisclosed deadline is not met the city could start default proceedings.

“We want the theater to work,” Chichester said.

As of this afternoon the city had not received Gatling’s payment. The total Gatling owes is $196,406.98, rrspin.com first reported last week. Half is for February and the remainder is for this month.

Reached Wednesday in Chicago Gatling said he was with a family discussing funeral arrangements and could not talk. He did say arrangements were being made to pay the debt. Returning a followup call this afternoon Gatling said he could still not immediately discuss the matter.

In updates contained in Tuesday’s city council agenda packet, the city said it was told the payment could be expected by the end of the week and notes additional information requested by Bank of America has been forwarded.

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District Attorney Melissa Pelfrey says Clarence Burgess Jr., charged in two Christmas season bank robberies, was released from jail on $8,000 bond because of miscommunication between her office and the clerk of courts office.

Pelfrey declined to elaborate but did tell rrspin.com “steps were being taken” to correct the miscommunication.

Burgess had his bond reduced from $1 million to $8,000 in two Christmas season bank robberies and was charged last Wednesday in a break-in at Chaloner Middle School and a burglary at Forest Hills apartments, the Roanoke Rapids Police Department said.

Burgess, 25, who was charged in the New Republic and First Citizens bank robberies, and Jermaine Hale, face charges of breaking and entering, larceny, possession of stolen property and felony conspiracy at Chaloner Middle School.

Burgess was also charged with felony possession of stolen property in the Forest Hills burglary. Hale, 23, was charged with second-degree burglary, possession of stolen goods and felony larceny.

Burgess was taken into custody and jailed on $100,000 bond. The property belonging to the school, computer equipment, was recovered. The police department has asked the district attorney’s office to revoke Burgess’s bank robbery bond.

Sometime after his arrest on the bank robbery charges in December, Burgess was released from jail on $8,000 bond after it was reduced from $1 million.

When he was arrested on the bank robbery charges, Burgess was abusive, made threats against police and used racial slurs as he was taken into custody.

A magistrate gave Burgess 30 days in jail for contempt of court.