Black: I'll trade my work for time

He proposes plan to avoid prison

RALEIGH -- Instead of going to prison, former House Speaker Jim Black wants to give free eye exams and glasses to the poor.

In court papers filed Monday, Black submitted an 11-page business plan for an optometry clinic and said it could be running within days. He has been an optometrist more than 40 years.

Black suggested he could give exams five days a week, 2,000 exams a year, at a benefit to taxpayers of $543,882. He would also be on house arrest.

"This plan would allow Dr. Black to serve his punishment in a way that is beneficial to the community at large," wrote his attorneys, Ken Bell and Jack Knight of Charlotte. "This plan would save the taxpayers considerable money, and would provide indigent children with corrective vision services that would otherwise go unattended."

Black, 72, a Matthews Democrat, is to be sentenced in federal court in Raleigh at 10 a.m. Wednesday. He could get 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for taking payments from chiropractors with interests before the General Assembly. He pleaded guilty to corruption charges in February.

Black's attorneys also argued that the chiropractors intended their payments as campaign contributions and kept them to the $4,000-per-election limit, even when handing over cash. "Not one of the three chiropractors told investigators they gave cash to Dr. Black as a quid pro quo," the lawyers wrote.

Earlier Monday, prosecutors said in court papers that Black has been less than truthful, failing to cooperate fully with their corruption investigation. They wrote that Black has met twice with investigators and government lawyers since his resignation and conviction. Black served eight years as House speaker and was one of the state's most influential politicians.

"The information provided by the defendant in these sessions did not substantially assist in the investigation or prosecution of others, nor it is likely to ripen into such assistance," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Bruce and Dennis Duffy.