Staff photo by Shawn Rocco
Former Gov. Mike Easley's lawyer Thomas Hicks, right, shakes board member Robert Cordle's hand after the State Board of Elections ordered former Easley's campaign to pay $100,000 for failing to report campaign flights and sent Easley's case to the Wake County District Attorney's Office for a criminal review on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009.
The State Board of Elections ordered former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign to pay $100,000 for failing to report campaign flights and sent Easley's case to the Wake County District Attorney's Office for a criminal review.
Board chairman Larry Leake said the board had received evidence that suggests Easley or others may have committed a crime.
"This board has received evidence which, if believed, would tend to indicate that criminal violations of our election laws and campaign finance laws have occurred on the part of Mike Easley and perhaps others," Leake said.
Easley supporter and friend McQueen Campbell testified that Easley told him to file a false invoice for campaign flights to pay for repairs done to Easley's Raleigh home. Easley said the allegation is false.
The board also found that the Easley campaign solicited $9,000 in contributions by telling the contributors that the money would be earmarked for Easley's campaign, a violation of state law. The board ordered the N.C. Democratic Party to surrender $9,000. The board decided that there was no evidence of other crimes committed by the party.
