Ending what former N.C. lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings called a five-year nightmare, the same federal judge who sent him to prison more than three years ago has officially exonerated him.
"It's the first day in a number of years I didn't wake up as a felon, so it's a good feeling," Geddings told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday. "It's been a nightmare for the last five years. I lost my marriage ... my reputation [and] my business. Certainly it's been the hardest time of my adult life."
Late on Friday, U.S. District Judge James Dever III vacated the 2006 conviction and ordered the government to refund Geddings' $25,000 fine.
Supreme Court ruling
The order came two months after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the fraud statute under which Geddings was convicted. In essence, it said the statute no longer applied to what Geddings did.
Less than a week after the ruling, he was released from a federal prison in Jesup, Ga.
Geddings, a chief of staff to former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges, once lived in Charlotte and flirted with a run for mayor. His legal troubles began in 2005 when then-Democratic House Speaker Jim Black appointed him to the fledgling state lottery commission.
He resigned five weeks later after reports that a lottery company had paid him thousands in the years leading up to his appointment. Prosecutors said Geddings denied the public of "honest services" by failing to disclose his conflict on a state ethics form.
He was convicted in 2006 for failing to disclose $250,000 in consulting payments from lottery vendor Scientific Games. The company was expected to bid - and did bid - on the state lottery contract.
Geddings entered prison in July 2007, days before Black himself was sentenced on corruption charges and sent to the same prison.
Geddings appealed. He argued that mere failure to disclose a conflict did not constitute honest services fraud. In 2008, a federal appeals court disagreed and reaffirmed his conviction.
Since his release June 30, Geddings has lived in Florida, where he and his wife, Kris, moved in 2006 to start a new life. They bought two St. Augustine radio stations with the proceeds of their sale of two Charlotte-area stations.
He was standing in a prison lunch line a few months ago when divorce papers were served. He was also behind bars when his son, who suffers from autism, was sent away to a boarding school.
Geddings acknowledges that he made mistakes.
"I should have been more fulsome in the disclosures I made on that ethics form," he said, "but I never committed a felony."
Picking up the pieces
Geddings blames what he called partisan prosecutors and judges. He also blames news media that he said never take a critical look at prosecutors.
"To sit around and say I was right doesn't make me feel any better," he said. "The reality is, my life has been blown up. I can't do anything in Democratic politics because I've become toxic.
"I work every day to try not to be bitter. I'm very happy to be with my daughter, and I'm very happy to be starting the next chapter of my life. I know that being bitter doesn't do any good for anyone," Geddings said. "I need to figure out a way to make this a positive experience not only for me but for the people who care about me."
