NC House appointing committee to review allegations against Cecil Brockman
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- House Speaker Destin Hall will form a committee to review charges and precedent.
- Committee will examine allegations, criminal filings and past expulsion cases.
- Hall expects to announce committee members and procedural details on Wednesday.
The North Carolina House is getting ready to take steps that could lead to removing Rep. Cecil Brockman from office after he was arrested and charged earlier this month with multiple alleged sex crimes involving a minor.
House Speaker Destin Hall announced during a brief voting session Tuesday evening that he would form a bipartisan committee to review the allegations and criminal charges against Brockman, a High Point Democrat, and the history and precedent of expelling a sitting lawmaker from the body.
Hall, a Republican, said he expected to announce more details Wednesday, including which lawmakers will be appointed to the committee.
Several Republicans and Democrats have called on Brockman to resign.
After session, Hall told reporters that legislative staff and attorneys are reviewing past legislative proceedings that were conducted to discipline and expel members, to determine how best to move forward.
“We’ve looked at what’s been done in the past, and I want to try as best as we can to follow what’s been done in the past. There’s no set law in place, there’s just a precedent of what’s been done,” Hall said. “As I understand it, in the past there’s been an opportunity for due process, an opportunity to be heard, and then votes in the committee and votes on the House floor.”
Hall said on Tuesday that House leadership had spoken with House Minority Leader Robert Reives, the top Democrat, about the chamber’s next steps as well.
Brockman was charged with two felony counts each of indecent liberties with a child and statutory sex offense with a minor who is 15 years old or younger. He was denied pre-trial release ahead of his first court appearance after the presiding magistrate said he attempted to contact the 15-year-old juvenile in the case.
During a hearing earlier this month, a district court judge in Guilford County set Brockman’s secured bond at $1.05 million.
The 41-year-old lawmaker was briefly hospitalized after he had an unspecified medical emergency, but has since been moved back to the county jail in High Point, and remains in custody, according to Bria Evans, a spokesperson for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.
It’s unclear how Brockman would participate in legislative proceedings that allow for a member facing expulsion to have due process.
Hall said on Tuesday that was one of several questions staff was working on answering: “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there.”
The most recent state lawmaker to be expelled from office is former Democratic Rep. Thomas Wright of Wilmington, who was removed in March 2008 after being indicted for fraud and obstruction of justice.
An extra legislative session was called to expel Wright, who was removed for “unethical conduct unfitting and unbecoming a member of the House of Representatives,” according to legislative records.
The state constitution holds that “each house shall be judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members.”
In Wright’s case, the House passed a resolution requiring a two-thirds majority vote, then voted 109-5 to expel him, The News & Observer previously reported.
Wright was convicted of fraud a month later, and later that year he was also found guilty of obstruction of justice after failing to report $150,000 in campaign contributions over six years, keeping most of the money for himself, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
At least 14 lawmakers have been expelled since 1757, The N&O previously reported.
Before Wright, the most recent General Assembly expulsion was in the 1874-75 legislative session, though the House censured members in 1880 and again in 1996.
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 6:06 PM.
