Ethics committee continues investigation of Rep. Wright

Raleigh |

The General Assembly may have folded its tent for the year, but its Joint Ethics Committee will continue its investigation of Rep. Thomas Wright.

Nothing has been heard from the committee since June 7, when it said it would consider Speaker Joe Hackney's May 21 request for an investigation.

A law passed just last week could mean the public will learn more about the investigation as it moves forward.

The committee's co-chairmen confirmed last week that the committee is indeed investigating the Democrat from Wilmington. Hackney had asked the committee to look at evidence revealed at Wright's May 15 hearing in front of the N.C. State Board of Elections and to see if he violated the law or ethics rules.

Wright, who represents the state House district that includes downtown Wilmington, northwestern New Hanover County and the western two-thirds of Pender County, did not return a message left Friday on his mobile phone.

The elections board accused Wright of filing false campaign disclosures. It also heard evidence that Wright failed to report about $222,000 in contributions since 2000. Also, it found that Wright, formerly chairman of the House Health Committee, had a state health official write a letter awarding a bogus grant to a foundation Wright controlled.

The ethics committee's House co-chairman, Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, said last week that the "committee has met, is meeting and will continue to meet" during the more than nine months the General Assembly will be out of session. The legislature concluded its work for the year on Aug. 2 and isn't expected to return until May 13.

Sen. Daniel Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg - the committee's Senate chairman - said last week that he could say only that the committee was working with "agencies, both inside and outside" the legislature on the investigation.

That did not impress Joe Sinsheimer, the Democratic activist whose complaint to the N.C. State Board of Elections began the broader look into Wright's campaign and financial activities.

"The issues in this case are cut and dry," Sinsheimer said Friday. "There is no need for a monthlong investigation by the legislative ethics committee. They're giving the public the impression that they are trying to run out the clock in the hope that the Wake County DA will indict Wright before they have to take action."

The Wake DA, Colon Willoughby, said Friday that he and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation continue their probe.

"The investigators are working, interviewing people and getting documents," Willoughby said.

The ethics committee has a range of choices in how it can proceed. But, under a law passed last week, if the committee chooses to have a hearing on Wright, that hearing must be held in public.

Mark Schreiner is chief of the Star-News bureau in Raleigh. Reach him at (919) 835-1434 or mark.schreiner@starnews

online.com.