A former Southport mayor and a former top aide to former Gov. Mike Easley paid visits to the federal building today, where a grand jury was meeting. Records indicate the grand jury is investigating numerous activities within the Easley administration, but the jury's work is secret and so its focus is unclear.
Norman Holden, the former mayor of Southport and a friend of former Gov. Mike Easley, arrived at about 10 a.m., left for lunch, then returned before exiting at 3 p.m., J. Andrew Curliss reports. Holden did not have a lawyer with him and declined to comment.
Holden had an unusual arrangement with the N.C. Department of Transportation that paid him roughly $20,000 a year as a regional liaison. A federal subpoena indicates authorities are interested in that arrangement.
Another person who visited the federal building today is Susan Rabon, a former top aide to Easley. She and her attorney, Stephen Petersen of Raleigh's Smith Moore Leatherwood firm, left just before 5 p.m. and also declined comment. Rabon had appeared at the federal building at least once before when the grand jury was meeting.
Dan Kane has covered local and state government and N.C. State University at The News & Observer since joining our staff in 1997. Most recently, he and J. Andrew Curliss teamed to report “The Missing Money,” a three-part series that explored the state's growing number of tax breaks and the related rising revenue loss. Kane's reporting also exposed one of the worst academic fraud cases in U.S. higher education history at UNC-Chapel Hill. Contact him at
Comments
we need a who's who directory for Easley-gate ...
Wed, 05/19/2010 - 18:15 — essequamvideriAnd thanks to Dumplin' Susan Rabon is now a well-paid commissioner on the State Utilities Commission. Her husband Tom was a State Representative.
Here's part of her bio:
"In 2001, she moved to the Governor’s Office with incoming Governor Michael F. Easley. As Senior Assistant for Administration she served as one of the Governor’s top three advisors and oversaw the day-to-day administrative operations of the Governor’s Office. She provided the Governor with advice in many areas of state government but particularly in the areas of budget, personnel and technology."
http://www.ncuc.commerce.state.nc.us/overview/ucrabon.htm
Wow. Wonder if she knows anything about e-mail? Like how to send & receive & delete messages. Apparently her boss was pretty clueless - oh that's right - he did manage to figure out how to set up his "Nick Danger" account.
One big happy Democrat family.