Perry Newson was nervous the day he took the stand as a key witness in the federal government's case against Kevin Geddings, a former state lottery commissioner.

The executive director of the State Ethics Commission had never testified in a criminal case, and his interrogator was Tommy Manning, one of Raleigh's top defense lawyers.

Manning sought to characterize the state agency as inconsistent in identifying conflicts of interest. He hoped to rattle Newson enough to give the jury the impression that Geddings' failure to disclose his work for the lottery vendor Scientific Games was hardly criminal.

But Newson remained mild-mannered and unflappable as Manning hammered him repeatedly with the same question: Was the commission's "reasonable person" standard too vague to be used against Geddings?

Finally, Newson looked at the jurors and calmly said, "I think we're about to find out."

The jurors broke out in laughter.

Two weeks later, with all the evidence in, they took less than a day to convict Geddings on five counts of mail fraud.

Those who know Newson say the remark should serve as a warning for officials who think they can hide conflicts of interest from the board.

"He's not somebody who's going to be intimidated," says Gary R. Govert, a special deputy attorney general and a longtime friend. "At the same time, I don't think he's somebody who is just going to jump ahead with something without thinking about it carefully."

Power will expand

Newson has been executive director of what was previously known as the N.C. Board of Ethics for seven years. But starting Jan. 1, his duties and those of the commission will increase dramatically. What had previously been an advisory board with little investigative power will soon have the power to issue subpoenas and fines. It will also extend its reach into the legislative and judicial branches, though officials there will continue to investigate serious complaints of conflicts of interest.

The changes come on the heels of scandals involving the legislative and campaign activities of House Speaker Jim Black, who appointed Geddings to the lottery commission. Black, a Mecklenburg Democrat, has not been charged and says he has done nothing illegal. Five people involved in his activities have been charged of various crimes, and four have been convicted.

Newson pushed for many of the changes after the Geddings case exposed the need for a state ethics law with criminal penalties. The ethics board previously operated under an executive order.

Now Newson is working long hours assembling a seven-person staff that is more than triple the two-person operation that he joined, and finding ways to break down a complex new ethics law into bite-size pieces the public can understand.

"I'm the poster child for being careful what you ask for, because I got it," Newson says. "But it's a step in the right direction for the state."

Teaching ethics

Until Newson joined the board, he had spent his career as a litigator in private practice and for the state. He bounced between law firms in Tampa, Fla., and Raleigh before joining the state Attorney General's Office in 1993 to represent the N.C. Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Authority. Its mission was to find a home for radioactive waste collected from hospitals, universities and utilities across the Southeast.

The authority's work was winding down when the ethics position opened. Newson saw the job as an opportunity to explore another interest: teaching. Much of the ethics board's work involved helping public officials understand what constitutes a possible or actual conflict of interest.

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