Black to spend night at Wake jail
Published: Mon, Jul. 30, 2007 02:04PM
Modified Mon, Jul. 30, 2007 05:12PM
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closeRALEIGH -- Former House Speaker Jim Black will have to keep himself company during his first night behind bars.
Black, beginning a prison term for public corruption, will spend tonight in a one-person holding cell in the Wake County jail, said spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens. Black has a hearing in Wake Superior Court on Tuesday, and Stephens said that holding cells are reserved for people staying only overnight.
"He'll be treated like anyone else," Stephens said.
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Black, 72, arrived at the jail at 2:20 p.m., in a black van with tinted side windows. U.S. marshals surrounded him as he got out in handcuffs connected to a chain around his waist. Three men escorted him inside.
Earlier in the day, Black surrendered to U.S. marshals at the Terry Sanford Federal Building in Raleigh.
At 1:48 p.m., he got out of the back door of a gray Honda minivan wearing a red, striped shirt and gray pants. His attorney, Ken Bell of Charlotte, accompanied him.
Asked whether he was prepared for prison, Black replied, "I'm prepared for about anything."
He ignored most other questions as he slowly walked about 30 yards from the curb to the federal building.
Black, a Matthews Democrat, pleaded guilty in February to taking illegal payments from chiropractors. He was ordered to serve five years and three months at a federal prison camp in Lewisburg, Pa.
First, he faces the hearing in state court in Raleigh on Tuesday for sentencing on two other corruption charges.
Photojournalist Shawn Rocco of The News & Observer in Raleigh contributed.
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