Jim Black sentenced to 5 years

Prison term for taking thousands in payoffs ends long career of former speaker

RALEIGH -- He looked like the old Jim Black as he walked into the federal courtroom Wednesday morning. A confident smile on his face, the former House speaker from Mecklenburg County even patted the forearm of a federal agent who helped bring him down.

Black's smile soon faded as his sentencing hearing on a public corruption charge wore on. Black, an optometrist, would not get to open the free eye clinic he suggested to pay his debt to society. Nor would he get the sentence his attorneys suggested, roughly three years.

Black winced and covered his face with his hands as U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle determined that Black should serve almost double that. Boyle ordered that Black spend five years and three months in federal prison for accepting $25,000 in cash and a $4,000 check from chiropractors while pushing legislation to help the profession. Boyle also fined Black $50,000 and ordered him to serve three years on probation.

Black, 72 years old and with an ailing wife, could die behind bars. But Boyle found that Black's actions constituted bribery and that he had not shown true acceptance of responsibility.

"Today is the end of the line for Jim Black and his corruption," U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said after the sentencing. "Speaker Black is going to prison for 63 months. He earned every day of it."

Gov. Mike Easley, who had relied on Black to push several of his initiatives through the legislature, said he was saddened.

"I think the whole episode is unfortunate," Easley said. "It's a shame his career ended that way. It's a shame for North Carolina."

Black and his attorneys declined to comment after they left the courthouse in Raleigh. They piled into a black SUV driven by Black's son, Jon, the only relative to attend, and drove away. Where Black will serve his time and when have yet to be determined.

Black still must appear in state court to be sentenced on bribery and obstruction of justice charges that could result in anything from probation to another two years in prison. A date has yet to be set.

Black, one of the state's two longest-serving speakers, is the most powerful official in the state's history to be sentenced for public corruption. He joins a growing list of other officials -- such as former state Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps and former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance -- to go behind bars in recent years for taking advantage of their public positions. All are Democrats in a state largely controlled by Democrats.

Defining moment

Black's case is likely to be remembered as a watershed moment in North Carolina politics, said Harry Watson, a UNC-Chapel Hill history professor who oversees the Center for the Study of the American South. Black rode to power by embracing the rise of big-money politics in North Carolina and, in the end, he showed how dangerous that game can be, Watson said.

"The dark underside of the story is that even in a state where honest government has been a standard, that the influence of money in politics is now so pervasive that the temptation to indulge in this kind of thing is enormously powerful," Watson said.

During the sentencing hearing, Black, in his trademark mumbling voice, said he accepted "full responsibility for the mistakes I have made." He also called his actions "stupid" and apologized to his colleagues in the legislature and the people of North Carolina.

Black and his lead attorney, Ken Bell of Charlotte, insisted that the only crime Black committed was taking cash campaign contributions from chiropractors that he failed to document in his campaign reports. Each payment was no more than $4,000, the legal limit for campaign contributions, though state law does not allow them to be given in cash.