Posted on 02/20/2007 1:49:08 PM PST by southernnorthcarolina
RALEIGH -- Former House Speaker Jim Black pleaded guilty in state court in Raleigh today to a felony charge of offering a bribe to former State Rep. Michael Decker to change his party affiliation to Democrat and keep Black in power in 2003.
Black also pleaded guilty to a second charge of obstructing justice, stemming from a lengthy investigation into campaign contributions to Black from chiropractors and other interest groups.
Black entered an Alford plea, in which he doesn't admit guilt but is treated the same as if he had entered a guilty plea. The charges grew out of a long-running campaign finance investigation by state officials, who outlined many of their results during court proceedings today.
District Judge Donald Stephens accepted his plea, but did not sentence Black today.
Testimony in court today indicated that Black gave manila envelopes filled with cash to Decker twice in Black's speaker office in the legislative building in 2003.
All told, Decker, who formerly represented the Winston-Salem area, got $58,000 from Black, $12,000 in cash and the rest in checks, according to State Bureau of Investigation assistant agent in charge Randy Myers.
Some of the money came from cash Black collected from chiropractors, testimony indicated. Black's attorney contested that cash from chiropractors went to Decker.
Black also got Decker's son a job in exchange for the party switch, according to Myers' testimony.
Black's plea comes less than a week after he pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting illegal cash payments from chiropractors who sought legislative favors. Federal and state investigators worked together on the probe.
Black is not scheduled for sentencing in the federal case until May 14 and is required to cooperate in other parts of the investigation. Similarly, his sentencing in state court was delayed indefinitely.
For more than a year, state officials have scrutinized Black's fundraising from the video poker industry, chiropractors and his fellow optometrists. Early last year, the State Board of Elections ruled that Black broke the law when he and the political action committee for the state's optometrists collected campaign contribution checks from optometrists but asked them to leave the "payee" line blank. Black and others later filled in the checks and distributed them to chosen candidates.
Neither Black nor the optometrists' PAC recorded receiving or giving the money as required by law.
An Alford plea, such as Black entered today, grew out of a 1970 United States Supreme Court decision on a North Carolina case. If a defendant believes there is sufficient evidence for a jury to convict, the defendant can avoid the trial and enter an Alford plea. The defendant doesn't admit guilt but the plea is treated the same as a guilty plea, including sentencing.
During hearings last March, members of the State Board of Elections asked state prosecutors to consider criminal charges against the video poker industry's political committee and 18 people with ties to the business for campaign finance law violations involving donations to Black. The board said there was no evidence Black knew what happened.
Today's state court proceedings are expected to end the criminal case against Black, but prosecutors have said that their investigation continues.
After extensive research by a crack team of investigative journalists, Jim Black's party affiliation could not be determined. (The only party mention in the article is the bribed party switch.)
Good! One more scumbag in the pen. We've been dealing with this POS here in NC far too long.
The front page story in the Sunday Raleigh NC paper was titled, "Black Helped Fringe Players", no mention of affiliation in the story for the man without a party.
Culture of corruption, maybe?
And the newspaper did NOT explicitly label Black as a Democrat even once in the entire column. They simply implied it. Typical bias, and they are getting trickier about it.
An Alford plea: Alford Plea
"The term "Alford Plea" has come to apply to any case in which the defendant tenders a guilty plea but denies that he or she has in fact committed the crime. The Alford plea is expressly prohibited in some states and limitedly allowed in others. In federal courts, the plea is conservatively permitted for certain defenses and under certain circumstances only.
But the most cited and most familiar Supreme Court case on plea bargaining is North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970). In 1970, North Carolina law provided that a penalty of ...
Hey Jim, bend over and take it like a man (or woman, as the case might be).
The rat loves people like this. He could get elected over and over with such a "great" resume. The rat loves his crooks.
What about prosecution of Decker?
As for Black.
Anyone who has heard the voice vote that instituted the lottery in NC cannot come to any other conclusion than the outcome was 'fixed'.
I'll bet Black got big bucks to ramrod that bill through.
This guy is beyond sleazy, he's in a whole other class.
Decker has pleaded guilty to at least some charges.
According to this article from last August, he was scheduled for sentencing in November of last year, but evidentgly the sentencing hearing was continued. Per today's Charlotte Observer, he is now scheduled for sentencing in federal court on April 23.
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