Grand jury indicts NC Auditor Beth Wood on charge of misusing state vehicle
A Wake County grand jury has indicted State Auditor Beth Wood for allegedly misusing her public, state-assigned vehicle, according to District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.
The indictment alleges that Wood used her state-owned vehicle for private purposes, including “traveling back and forth to regularly scheduled hair appointments and dental appointments out of town, traveling to shopping centers and spa locations where she was not engaged in business in her official capacity,” Freeman said in a news release.
The specific law Wood has been accused of violating, G.S. 14-247, makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to misuse a permanently assigned state vehicle.
The indictment follows an eight-month investigation into Wood’s use of the vehicles assigned to her before and after she crashed a state-assigned Toyota Camry into a parked car in downtown Raleigh last December, after leaving a holiday party hosted by former N.C. Attorney General and Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten.
Wood left the scene of that crash without informing police, and was later charged with a hit-and-run. She pleaded guilty to that charge in March after paying more than $11,000 in restitution for repairs to both cars. During that court appearance, Wood disclosed that she had two glasses of wine at the party, but said she wasn’t impaired when she got behind the wheel.
In particular, Wood used her vehicle to make numerous visits to the Blue Water Spa on Raven Ridge Road, according to court documents that were filed in August. In an affidavit in support of a search warrant for the spa, an investigator wrote that location data from Wood’s car showed several visits to the spa between September 2021 and September 2022.
Wood, a Democrat, announced last week she wouldn’t run for a fifth term.
The investigation into Wood’s use of her state-assigned vehicles is ongoing, Freeman said.
Her first court date is scheduled for Dec. 4.
This story was originally published November 7, 2023 at 4:57 PM.
