Mike Easley's strange adventure as a criminal defendant rather than prosecutor, not to mention attorney general or governor, came lurching to a halt in the Wake County courthouse as he pleaded guilty to one charge of causing a false campaign finance report to be filed.
The report neglected to disclose a helicopter flight provided by political sidekick and favor-beneficiary McQueen Campbell. The value of that flight - a whopping $1,600 - amounted to a campaign contribution. The violation was indeed classified as a felony, although hardly the kind that used to get men sent to Alcatraz.
But the whole chain of events left hanging a cluster of questions and a sense that somehow, the wheels of justice had seized up.
Yes, the distinction between unseemly or unethical conduct and conduct that violates specific statutes must be maintained. But how did U.S. Attorney George Holding, who has far-reaching investigative powers and who spent the better part of two years digging into the affairs of Easley and associates, convince himself to defer to his state prosecutorial counterpart?
Holding explained in a letter to Easley's counsel that U.S. Justice Department policy encourages cooperation with state authorities. And perhaps the evidence of possible federal offenses was ambiguous.
But special state prosecutor William Kenerly apparently didn't have the goods either, except for the one charge incorporated into Easley's plea bargain. Kenerly also cited "hotly contested evidence" - just the kind of evidence that Holding could have used an investigative grand jury taking sworn testimony to untangle. State prosecutors should have that power, but don't.
Kenerly was hampered by Easley's apparent immunity regarding matters covered in his testimony to the State Board of Elections. It even turned out that, as Kenerly explained, white-collar prosecutions weren't his strong suit. All in all, he looks to have been a curious choice to get to the bottom of this mess.
Considering the whole arc of Easley's career, it's hard not to have some basic sympathy for him. He's been inherently likable, for his sense of humor and even because of his eccentricities - the governor who had to be dragged to public events, but who once he got there could, as the saying goes, knock 'em dead.
And on the policy front, those of us who opine on such matters for The N&O gave Easley generally high marks. He did his share of heavy lifting in times of budget duress and managed to keep the state's education investments flowing.
For all that, compelled by character traits that included secretiveness, acquisitiveness and perhaps an overly combative streak, Easley let himself slide into a series of dubious decisions that put him on the prosecutors' radar.
With his campaign failing to make the proper disclosures, he flew all over the map courtesy of McQueen Campbell, who was milking his ties to the governor in various ways including a coveted appointment to N.C. State University's Board of Trustees. Easley's campaign was fined $100,000 for thumbing its nose at the disclosure rules.
Meanwhile, Easley became entangled with developers who needed permits from regulators within the governor's chain of command.
The governor was given what looked to be a terrific deal on a prime lot at Cannonsgate, a marina project on Bogue Sound. He and his wife, Mary, ended up with a $137,000 discount off the recorded sale price. Cannonsgate's developers had funneled big contributions to the state Democratic Party, with the money destined for Easley's campaign.
Many lot buyers at Cannonsgate hoped to turn a quick buck in the red-hot coastal real estate market. Then the housing bubble burst, and lots that had sold in the hundreds of thousands as values were inflated by shady mortgage schemes sank into foreclosure, worth a relative pittance.
Getting Easley on board was probably intended as a marketing coup. But with the investigations involving Easley now shut down, it looks as though only his former aide Ruffin Poole - who pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion after prosecutors first threw the book at him - will take a fall among all the self-serving characters who swarmed around the governor. Poole's unreported income came from the developer who financed Cannonsgate and who let Poole invest, apparently after Poole helped move the project along.
Easley's memento: A $494,000 loan still to be paid off for his lot. That sounds like a long ways under water.
Government resources should not be squandered with interminable investigations and litigation. But prosecutors, especially the federal ones, could have gone farther toward clearing the air if they had taken their best shot with any evidence sufficient for indictment and put Easley on trial. That would have placed the fruits of their labor on the public record. It might even have been fairer to Easley.
There are just too many mysteries in the way this affair has petered out. It won't be Mike Easley's plea bargain that redeems the justice system as it operates in North Carolina, a decade into the 21st century.
