Stories reported initially in Carolina Journal may play a major role in securing the plea agreement expected Tuesday between prosecutors and former Gov. Mike Easley. Media reports suggest Easley will plead guilty to a felony obstruction of justice charge stemming (in part) from free flights Easley took on private aircraft that were not reported to the State Board of Elections.

UPDATE, NOV. 23: VIDEO OF EASLEY ENTERING COURTROOM FROM CJ ASSOCIATE EDITOR ANTHONY GRECO.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens sent an e-mail to the media Monday announcing a court hearing Tuesday at noon involving the former two-term governor. The state prosecution was launched after the elections board fined Easley’s campaign committee $100,000 for the illegal flights. By the time the elections board could enforce its penalty, the committee was broke and the fine was not paid.

CJ Executive Editor Don Carrington first reported on the flights in October 2008, months before other media outlets. Elizabethtown “businessman, Dallas McQueen ‘Mac’ Campbell Jr. and his sons, all pilots, quietly have been providing free, private and low-key air transportation for Easley for years,” Carrington learned.

At the time, Easley campaign lawyer John Wallace insisted the flights had been paid for, either by the Easley committee or the state Democratic Party. But at a 2009 State Board of Elections hearing, Campbell’s son McQueen Campbell testified that he flew Easley extensively for free. The board also learned that Easley used campaign funds to pay for repairs on his Raleigh home.

Easley appointed McQueen Campbell to the N.C. State University Board of Trustees in 2001. Campbell later became the board’s chairman. While on the board, Campbell and Mike Easley arranged to secure a job for First Lady Mary Easley to supervise a speaker’s program at the college. On July 1, 2008, Mary Easley received an 88 percent raise, from $90,300 to $170,000 yearly. CJ was the first media outlet to report the raise.

The elections board did not cite Easley for his part in landing a job for his wife. Nor did it probe a 2005 real estate deal Easley received at the coastal Cannonsgate resort community in Carteret County. CJ reported in April 2006 that Easley appeared to get a bargain on the waterfront lot. A follow-up story noted that Easley’s lot nearly doubled in value a year after he purchased it. And in 2009, the News & Observer obtained a copy of the closing document, confirming the deal, and reporting that Easley received an additional 25 percent cash discount at closing on the lot.

It’s unclear whether the plea agreement will mention Mary Easley’s job or the Cannonsgate deal.

Rowan County District Attorney Bill Kenerly, a Republican, has been in charge of the state prosecution. He took over the investigation at the request of Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby, a close friend of Easley, who recused himself in the matter.

A federal grand jury reportedly has been looking into Easley’s campaign finances, Mary’s job, and the Cannonsgate deal, among other issues. The N&O, WRAL, and The Associated Press are reporting that as part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors will drop their investigation of Easley. Whether that is part of any agreement, or whether the state judge presiding over the case would accept such an arrangement, will not be known until the hearing.

Rick Henderson is managing editor of Carolina Journal.