SBI says former troopers wrote illegal tickets in NC for several years
Court records reviewed Thursday by The News & Observer in the case of two former troopers accused of a ticket-writing scam show charges involving five motorists that date back to last year.
And Anjanette Grube, a spokeswoman for the State Bureau of Investigation, says the SBI maintains the irregular ticket-writing in Harnett County, where the troopers were stationed, goes back as far as 2013. The illegal ticketing wasn’t spotted until June, when a patrol supervisor noticed an issue after reviewing reports, the SBI and State Highway Patrol have said.
“We identified victims dating back to 2013-2019,” Grube said in an email to The News & Observer on Thursday. She said most of the cases happened later in that six-year-period but both troopers were involved “over the years.”
She said any explanation for why this happened should be directed to the State Highway Patrol, which did not respond to the N&O’s phone and email messages on Thursday.
The two former troopers charged are Jason R. Benson, 35, and Christopher S. Carter, 34. They turned themselves in Wednesday. Both were released on a $50,000 unsecured bond.
Benson was dismissed in July; Carter voluntarily resigned.
Benson, a nine-year-member of the patrol, faces five felony obstruction of justice counts and five misdemeanor counts each of failure to discharge duty and making a false return of process. Carter, a five-year-member of the patrol, faces two felony obstruction of justice counts and two misdemeanor counts each of making a false return of process.
“Most of the citations stemmed from single car accidents or abandoned vehicles,” the SBI said in a statement after the troopers were charged Wednesday.
“In some cases, the two troopers charged individuals and failed to serve the citation(s).“The victims didn’t know they had been charged, therefore they didn’t show up for their court date(s). As a result, arrest warrants were issued for some while others had their driver’s licenses suspended.”
Parrish Hayes Daughtry, an attorney for Carter, said he was a “very highly respected” trooper in Harnett. Benson’s attorney could not reached by The N&O on Thursday. Harnett County District Attorney Vernon Stewart, who along with the patrol called for the SBI investigation, declined to comment on the case as he entered his office Thursday.
The SBI said in Wednesday’s news release that there are more than a dozen victims who had been issued citations or charges “unbeknownst to them.” The patrol has also launched an internal investigation.
The court records identified five victims all charged after traffic incidents, with four involving traffic accidents. The earliest is March 13, 2018, when Benson is accused of falsely charging a Dunn woman with traffic citations related to an accident.
“This offense was done with deceit and intent to defraud,” the indictment said.
Court records show Benson wrote five citations citing nine violations.
The other traffic incidents happened Dec. 15, April 20, and two on May 8, court records show. The charges against Carter involve tickets written in the May 8 cases.
The charges were dismissed against an Angier man involving tickets written in the April 20 case. The other motorists’ cases are scheduled to be heard in December.
The court records for that April 20 case shows it was dismissed because “(o)fficer is no longer employed by the NC SHP.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 3:29 PM.