The newspaper’s initial reporting on the testing along with continued coverage revealed how the state ignored the basic requirements and best practices for testing for lead in water.
Our stories got the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency (the federal department that doled out the grant money for the testing), which is now looking into how poorly Delaware officials handled the testing and adhered to the provisions of the grant.
In the fall of 2021, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction from 16 years before of a then-16-year-old named Mark Purnell because prosecutors withheld evidence that could have exonerated him at trial.
He was not released from prison then because prosecutors said they wanted to retry the case. Months went by with little movement in the case. Purnell was denied temporary release to visit his dying mother, then denied release to attend her funeral.
We wrote about prosecutors telling the court that Purnell should not be released on bail because he would pose an extreme danger to the community. But quietly, behind the scenes, and in order to avoid a civil suit, they had offered Purnell a deal that if he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, they would free him immediately.
The story also included new revelations showing that ever since the Supreme Court ruling, prosecutors and investigators were still withholding evidence, specifically a police interrogation where another person confessed to the crime.
The day after that story published, prosecutors dropped all charges and released Purnell in the middle of the night.
READ THE STORY: Delaware man’s decade-old murder conviction overturned; release from prison may follow
In May, seven apartments in Wilmington were condemned because the landlord had for several years failed to make repairs and improvements, even after city inspectors had issued warnings.
The condemnation forced seven families out of their homes and into emergency homeless shelters and motel rooms. As of September, many were still there because there was no available affordable housing.
Yet, just a couple weeks after the condemnation, before any repairs had even started, the landlord had the condemned apartment advertised as “available” and “for rent.” Our story revealed what the landlord was attempting to do, seek new tenants for unlivable apartments where people who had paid rent had been displaced .
That provoked the city’s chief of staff and the Licensing and Inspections Department to meet with the landlord and make sure the ads were taken down and that no tenants could step foot in the homes until all repairs were performed and approved.
THE REPORTING: Amid state probe, Wilmington landlord advertises apartment for rent in condemned building
After Georgia sheriff’s deputies stopped a Delaware State University women’s lacrosse team bus in south Georgia, the county sheriff insisted, multiple times, that none of the HBCU players’ personal items were searched.
The sheriff defended the stop, pushing back on allegations by students and community leaders that it was racially motivated. But after reviewing the deputies’ body camera footage that shows the men rifling through players’ items, Delaware Online/The News Journal broke the story that the sheriff’s statements were not accurate .
The story prompted an outcry from DSU leaders, state officials and NAACP leaders in both Delaware and Georgia, and Delaware’s attorney general referred the incident to the U.S. Justice Department for a federal civil rights review.
IMPACT: Delaware attorney general asks for federal civil rights review of DSU bus incident
A bill that would give Wilmington officials the ability to take vacant property for “community development” if it remains unoccupied for three years or longer was quietly passed out of a Delaware House committee in late June, stirring concerns of government overreach, a lack of transparency and gentrification .
The measure was sent for a House vote, with just nine days left in the legislative session, giving lawmakers little time to read and research the measure (especially while the budget and loads of other bills were in front of them).
In addition, there was no discussion or public input sought by the committee. A day after we published our story revealing the lack of transparency, public outrage was swift and the bill was pulled from the docket and shelved.
READ THE IMPACT: Wilmington vacant property seizure bill off the table following a heated community meeting
For years, the foul smell of raw sewage had come and gone inside the Loflands’ Wilmington home in the 800 block of N. Monroe St. Despite complaints to the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections Code Enforcement and other local officials, the family never saw follow-up, resorting to wearing masks in their home to reduce the stench.
But when a Delaware Online/The News Journal reporter began asking questions about the issue of the odor and who was responsible, the city publicly apologized in a statement from the Wilmington mayor’s office, admitting to a yearlong delay in addressing this issue.
The city also sent code enforcement out again to gain access to the vacant property responsible for the leak and determine how to proceed. This reporting exposed the challenges of enforcing violations and brought to light how difficult it can be as a resident to have your problems heard and addressed.
READ: Why a family’s pleas about a bad sewer leak in their house was ignored for a year
