NC senator hasn’t decided if she’ll press charges against fellow senator
The dismissal of an ethics complaint filed by a North Carolina state senator doesn’t mean the issue is dropped.
State Sen. Erica Smith, a Henrico Democrat, could still press charges against Sen. Paul Lowe, a Winston-Salem Democrat, for an incident last year during a caucus meeting. A General Assembly police report summary found that Lowe had committed a simple assault.
At an online public forum Wednesday evening, Smith said she had not decided whether to press charges.
“Senator Paul Lowe has an anger management problem,” Smith said. “The reason I held off on criminal charges as a last resort is because I want to change the institution.”
Lowe issued a statement on Friday referring to Senate debates, saying he apologizes “if she felt disrespected or unsafe” in those debates, but did not directly mention the incident in September.
Smith told the N&O Wednesday before her forum that Lowe has not apologized in person. Her response to his statement: “I think he’s living in an alternative reality.”
She said the Legislative Ethics Committee, in dismissing the entire complaint, did what she expected it to do and she will move forward, but didn’t say exactly how.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman told The News & Observer in a phone interview on Wednesday that filing criminal charges against Lowe would be up to the General Assembly Police Department and Smith. Freeman said she was only aware of the police report details through news reports.
The News & Observer and ProPublica first reported details of Smith’s ethics complaint and the police report summary from an investigation into an argument in the Senate Democratic caucus meeting on Sept. 11, 2019, in the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh.
Freeman said that the statute of limitations for misdemeanors is two years, and that Smith could go to a Wake County magistrate herself or confer again with the General Assembly police about the original report and whether to file charges.
Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue’s spokesperson, Leslie Rudd, sent the ethics complaint documents to reporters on Wednesday along with a statement from Blue’s chief of staff, Fred Aikens.
Sexual harassment accusations
In the dismissed complaint, Smith accused Sen. Toby Fitch, a Wilson Democrat, and Sen. Mike Woodard, a Durham Democrat, of sexually harassing comments.
She said Fitch made sexual comments to her on multiple occasions.
“Once I denied his advances, he started turning up the volume,” she said during her forum.
In the complaint released by Blue’s office, Smith said Fitch told her to “get off my knees and stop begging Republicans; that he only wanted to see a woman doing one thing on her knees.” Fitch has denied the allegations.
The complaint document alleges a profane comment from Woodard, who also has denied making the comment.
Witness denies part of complaint
Smith previously told the N&O she has been trying to get recourse for years and that other senators have been quiet as she has been bullied and disrespected.
Blue is named in the dismissed complaint for his handling of her prior complaints. Smith named Aikens in the complaint as a witness to incidents of alleged harassment and bullying.
In Aikens’ statement, he addresses each reference to him being a witness to incidents described in Smith’s complaint against Lowe and Fitch.
Aikens said that Smith’s descriptions of conversations witnessed by Aikens are false.
“Senator Smith has given the impression that her complaints were not taken seriously, not discussed, attempts were not made to address them, and that Leader Blue did not take appropriate action. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Aikens wrote.
“We have spent well too much time on these allegations,” Aikens says in the letter after going through each alleged incident.
Other senators accused
Smith filed the ethics complaint in April with the General Assembly’s Legislative Ethics Committee, which dismissed the complaint in May. Three of the committee members were accused in the complaint and recused themselves.
A General Assembly police officer concluded in his summary of the September incident that Lowe committed a simple assault because while there was no physical contact, Smith changed her course of action because of how Lowe approached her. Another senator intervened, and said in the police report he worried there would be a physical confrontation.
While exiting the room afterward, Lowe grabbed NC Policy Watch reporter Joe Killian’s phone and threw it, which was recorded on video. No criminal charges have been filed against Lowe in either case. Lowe apologized last year for the incident with Killian.
The complaint also named Blue for his handling of Smith’s complaints and Archdale Republican Sen. Jerry Tillman for alleged bullying.
The complaint made allegations against Sen. Bill Rabon, a Southport Republican, related to his role as Rules chair and Senate proceedings. In Smith’s complaint and in interviews, the senator said she repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to meet with Rabon about concerns regarding her conversations with other senators on the floor of the Senate. Rabon said in letters and emails that he remains willing to meet with her and any other senators.
The complaint accused Durham Democratic Sen. Floyd McKissick of using his position for personal gain for not recusing himself on 2019 legislation dealing with grants for water-system expansion. McKissick said last month that his only property that would have used the water system in question is a rental property in Oxford.
He added on Wednesday that he owns property in Warren County; that county also would have benefited from the grants. Smith’s dismissed complaint also takes issue with McKissick’s witness statement in the police report about the incident with Lowe. McKissick said while he hasn’t seen the report, he would have said what he believes occurred.
ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom, contributed to the reporting of this story.
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