Perry Newson was nervous the day he took the stand as a key witness in the federal government's case against Kevin Geddings, a former state lottery commissioner.

The executive director of the State Ethics Commission had never testified in a criminal case, and his interrogator was Tommy Manning, one of Raleigh's top defense lawyers.

Manning sought to characterize the state agency as inconsistent in identifying conflicts of interest. He hoped to rattle Newson enough to give the jury the impression that Geddings' failure to disclose his work for the lottery vendor Scientific Games was hardly criminal.

But Newson remained mild-mannered and unflappable as Manning hammered him repeatedly with the same question: Was the commission's "reasonable person" standard too vague to be used against Geddings?

Finally, Newson looked at the jurors and calmly said, "I think we're about to find out."

The jurors broke out in laughter.

Two weeks later, with all the evidence in, they took less than a day to convict Geddings on five counts of mail fraud.

Those who know Newson say the remark should serve as a warning for officials who think they can hide conflicts of interest from the board.

"He's not somebody who's going to be intimidated," says Gary R. Govert, a special deputy attorney general and a longtime friend. "At the same time, I don't think he's somebody who is just going to jump ahead with something without thinking about it carefully."

Power will expand

Newson has been executive director of what was previously known as the N.C. Board of Ethics for seven years. But starting Jan. 1, his duties and those of the commission will increase dramatically. What had previously been an advisory board with little investigative power will soon have the power to issue subpoenas and fines. It will also extend its reach into the legislative and judicial branches, though officials there will continue to investigate serious complaints of conflicts of interest.

The changes come on the heels of scandals involving the legislative and campaign activities of House Speaker Jim Black, who appointed Geddings to the lottery commission. Black, a Mecklenburg Democrat, has not been charged and says he has done nothing illegal. Five people involved in his activities have been charged of various crimes, and four have been convicted.

Newson pushed for many of the changes after the Geddings case exposed the need for a state ethics law with criminal penalties. The ethics board previously operated under an executive order.

Now Newson is working long hours assembling a seven-person staff that is more than triple the two-person operation that he joined, and finding ways to break down a complex new ethics law into bite-size pieces the public can understand.

"I'm the poster child for being careful what you ask for, because I got it," Newson says. "But it's a step in the right direction for the state."

Teaching ethics

Until Newson joined the board, he had spent his career as a litigator in private practice and for the state. He bounced between law firms in Tampa, Fla., and Raleigh before joining the state Attorney General's Office in 1993 to represent the N.C. Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Authority. Its mission was to find a home for radioactive waste collected from hospitals, universities and utilities across the Southeast.

The authority's work was winding down when the ethics position opened. Newson saw the job as an opportunity to explore another interest: teaching. Much of the ethics board's work involved helping public officials understand what constitutes a possible or actual conflict of interest.

Since then, he has traveled across the state educating officials ranging from community college board members to the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission so they could understand the need to report their financial interests. He has reviewed thousands of public officials' statements of economic interest and has issued hundreds of advisory opinions on whether actual or possible conflicts exist.

Newson also investigates conflict-of-interest complaints.

Last year, he found evidence of conflicts of interest involving Trudy Brown, then the head of the N.C. Board of Electrolysis Examiners. Brown owns laser hair removal clinics in Greensboro and High Point, and she raised money to lobby for legislation that benefited such businesses at the expense of competitors who do not use lasers.

Brown did not wait for the ethics board to make a recommendation on the findings. She resigned shortly after an investigative hearing.

Helping officials serve

Jane Finch, a Raleigh lawyer who is vice chairwoman of the commission, says Newson has been thorough, fair and firm in his ethics probes.

"He gives people a chance to talk through things and explain things," says Finch, who has served on the commission since 1993. "But if he takes a position that what happened is horrible and these people need to be hung, he's firm."

Newson says his approach to ethics enforcement won't change despite the tighter regulations. The goal is still to help public officials understand why transparency in government is important so they can disclose anything that could pose an issue in their public work.

"I tell people we are not the ethics police," Newson says. "Sure, we have a compliance function, but I don't view that as our primary mission by a long stretch. I view it as helping public officials do what they want to do, and that's serve the public."

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