By federal sentencing standards, Ruffin Poole caught a break Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle gave him a one-year prison term for hiding $55,000 in profits he reaped as part of insider deals that allowed him to benefit from his position as a top aide to former Gov. Mike Easley.

The sentence was one day above the minimum for a crime that Poole admitted committing in order to get more than 50 other charges dropped, and spared him at least another six months in prison. The penalty could have been harsher still if Boyle decided to treat the income tax evasion as a bribery case.

But when it came time to exit the federal courthouse, some of the roughly 30 supporters, nearly all of them in suits and ties, acted as if Poole were the victim of a kangaroo court. They formed a wedge in front of Poole and his wife, pushing and grabbing reporters and cameramen who sought to interview him as the couple made their way to a waiting SUV.

U.S. Attorney George Holding said he's seen better behavior from the families and supporters of violent criminals sentenced to much stiffer prison terms.

"In 10 years here I've never seen behavior like that," Holding said.

Sentencing has been delayed by two weeks on a tax evasion charge for Ruffin Poole, a longtime aide to former Gov. Mike Easley.

The Poole case had been set to be resolved this week in federal court.

Now, it is set for May 17.

Poole was a key figure in the Easley administration and agreed to a plea deal last year in exchange for prosecutors' dropping of more than 50 corruption-related charges.

In court filings, the two prosecutors handling the case both said they could not attend this week; one due to a training that will be attended by more than 70 agents and the other due to a "long-standing personal appointment" that couldn't be re-scheduled.

As part of his plea, Poole had been asked to cooperate with the wide-ranging probe of Easley that ended with a state charge but no federal charges. The sentencing hearing would likley reveal the depth of Poole's cooperation.

Prosecutors, in a court filing, said the open case is "ripe for sentencing."

Ruffin Poole, a longtime aide to former Gov. Mike Easley who was described in court documents as the "little governor," is set to be sentenced on an income tax evasion guilty plea next month.

Poole entered the guilty plea one year ago this week in federal court, and pledged cooperation in what was then a wide-ranging probe of Easley.

There were mixed views at the time about whether Poole's deal would lead to further indictments or charges.

Poole struck the plea bargain in exchange for prosecutors' dropping of more than 50 counts of corruption-related charges issued against him in an indictment.

Then, late last year, Easley entered a guilty plea in state court on a felony campaign finance charge in a three-way deal that halted the federal probe without any other federal action against him.

Easley paid a $1,000 fine, and was not sentenced to any active jail time as a part of the plea.

Poole faces up to five years in prison on the income tax charge, though it is unclear if he will receive active jail time.

The sentencing is set for May 4 at 2 p.m. in federal court before U.S. District Court Judge Terrence W. Boyle.

Former Gov. Mike Easley is on an indefinite leave of absence from the McGuireWoods law firm, which hired him as a partner last year.

Easley is part of state and federal investigations that are ongoing. A lawyer for Easley said he had no comment.

Among the charges brought against Ruffin Poole that are set to be dropped due to his plea deal are several alleging he committed "honest services" mail fraud.

Specifically, that he mailed in disclosure forms but purposefully and knowingly kept important information off of them. We've described earlier how the honest services law has played a role in North Carolina corruption cases, and is likely to change soon under scrutiny from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Baltimore Sun weighed in with a report over the weekend on the honest services situation, forecasting "that, at the very least, new limits on how the law may be used are forthcoming."

The Sun report is yet another good primer on the situation, which is likely to burst into the headlines within the next two months.

Here's more from the Sun report:

"It has become the principal federal statute in economic crimes and for public corruption cases," said Peter J. Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who specializes in white-collar crime. "It is very flexible."

The flexibility is exactly what some on the court find troubling. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote recently that honest services is "an expansive phrase" that "invites abuse by headline-grabbing prosecutors."

The law, Scalia wrote, has been used to make illegal "a staggeringly broad swath of behavior." Scalia suggested it could criminalize a lawmaker's decision to vote for a bill favored only by a small but powerful group in a district, a mayor who uses pull to secure a table at a restaurant and even "a salaried employee's calling in sick to go to a ball game."

In assessing the guilty plea by Ruffin Poole, and its possible effects for former Gov. Mike Easley, an N&O editorial today wondered: "Perhaps Poole can even solve the mystery of what happened to Easley's
travel records for 2005 — records whose disappearance would have to be
called convenient for the former guv."

That issue, for those who don't remember, involved records of travel and events by Easley that were turned over to the N&O last year by the state Highway Patrol. The N&O requested records for 2003 to 2009.

Many were provided, but all of 2005 was missing.

And that was a big year for Easley. He traveled with McQueen Campbell at least once to Florida on a fishing trip; it's unclear where he stayed, or who paid. His wife got a job at N.C. State University. And Easley acquired a lot at Cannonsgate — a waterfront parcel that came with a $137,000 discount at closing.

After much controversy about the missing year of records, there seems to be no answer for what happened to them.

But might Poole know?

On Feb. 18 last year, The N&O received notice it would get the travel records within a day.

That same date, state Highway Patrol Capt. Alan Melvin — who had headed the governor's protection detail in 2005 — visited Easley's home and delivered a package. Melvin initially denied that he was there, according to a patrol spokesman. Later, Melvin and Easley said that Melvin had dropped off either a hard drive or a laptop, or both.

When the N&O tried to ask Melvin at the time what he was doing there, he said he was delivering "personal items" and wouldn't elaborate.

Melvin was at the Easley home in the afternoon.

What the N&O hasn't reported previously is that Ruffin Poole was at Easley's home in West Raleigh that morning.

Poole spent at least an hour there, along with Easley's former chief of staff, Franklin Freeman. Within two months, both Poole and Freeman would join the McGuireWoods law firm along with Easley.

Were the three men discussing law firms that morning?

Not so, Poole told the N&O when asked a few days after his visit.

Poole said he was there for the same reason that Melvin said: He was delivering some things to the former governor.

"I was dropping off personal items," Poole said at the time. "He had left some eye glasses at the mansion, and some things in a box, and I was taking them back."

Andy Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State University, said Poole's plea likely will mean more bad news for Democrats running for office in the fall.

The plea alone is another reminder of the scandals that have plagued state Democrats over the past several years, ranging from former Agriculture Secretary Meg Scott Phipps to former House Speaker Jim Black.

That, coupled with the Democratic control in Congress and the White House now, sets up a political season where Democrats are aligned as the party in power at state and federal levels. In the past, that hasn't always been so — leading to broad-brush labeling of all parties as getting embroiled in corruption, he tells Dan Kane.

With Poole cooperating, Democrats could see more bad headlines in the summer and fall. They are trying to hold on to the state legislature come November, and knock out a Republican incumbent U.S. senator, Richard Burr.

"We might get other indictments as we go along, perhaps even a huge fish, and again that would promote the issue of scandal and corruption, and help the Republicans," Taylor said.
He said Democrats have two options in this situation: push for government reforms and also distance themselves from former Gov. Mike Easley.

Easley's successor, Bev Perdue, has unveiled a reform package and House Democrats have passed reforms last year that the Senate is expected to take up in this year's session.

There is a counter-argument. Polling has suggested that voters don't trust anyone, and so running on it as an issue hasn't been particularly effective, according to Public Policy Polling.

From the post: "These numbers are a good indication of why corruption hasn't been a
particularly effective electoral issue for Republicans in 2006 and 2008
despite the number of Democratic scandals. The voters don't really
trust them any more than they do the Democrats."

Ruffin Poole, the longtime aide and friend to ex-Gov. Mike Easley, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of tax evasion. He said he will cooperate with the ongoing investigation that surrounds Easley.

“I trust that Mr. Poole’s cooperation is going to be valuable,” the top federal prosecutor in the region said.

Click below to read the plea agreement reached on Monday between prosecutors and Ruffin Poole. It outlines the guilty plea by Poole to a single count of tax evasion, which carries a maximum penality of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Below that is the superseding indictment that was issued on March 18, detailing all 57 counts brought against Poole.

Poole's guilty plea is to Count 55. The narrative related to that count begins at paragraph 80 on page 34 of the superseding indictment.

For the origins of Poole's Cannonsgate investment, start at paragraph 60 on page 26.

Documents:

Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, said through a spokeswoman, Chrissy Pearson, that the acts by
Poole have "contributed to the overall distrust of our state leaders."

She said Perdue has been working to make changes to restore confidence in government.

"She is looking for swift justice," Pearson said. "And she looks forward to the case coming to an end."

———

NCGOP Chairman Tom Fetzer made the following statement concerning the plea agreement reached today by former Easley aide Ruffin Poole:

"Mike Easley put North Carolina state government up for the sale to the highest bidder and Ruffin Poole was his lead auctioneer.  From board appointments to coastal permits, it appears everything had a price and Ruffin Poole was always there to close the deal.  The same people whose names were littered throughout the Easley hearings and the Ruffin Poole indictment were prominent players in the Perdue for Governor Campaign and her current administration.  As we move forward with yet another scandal centered around North Carolina Democrat politicians, we must ask the State Board of Elections if citizens will have to wait until after Governor Perdue is out of office before the proper questions are asked.  Until then, we must collectively hold our laughter as we are expected to believe that the same people who corrupted the Easley administration with airplane flights and bundled contributions somehow had totally pure motives when engaging in the same activity with the Perdue campaign.”