To the Editor:

Your article in the August 29, 2008 Carolina Journal regarding North Carolina’s Attorney General is based upon inaccuracies and a lack of information. Please allow me to share with you and your readers some basic facts which show clearly that Attorney General Roy Cooper has been a strong advocate in the fight against public corruption.

As you know the NC State Bureau of Investigation is part of the Department of Justice and has operated for the past 7 1/2 years under the direction of Attorney General Roy Cooper. The SBI has been either the lead investigative agency or a significant partner in more than 400 public corruption cases during that period of time.

Agents from the Bureau worked diligently to bring criminal charges against former Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, Congressman Frank Balance, Sheriff Gerald Hege, and Sheriff Ronald Hewitt. The SBI conducted considerable interviews in heading up the investigation of Speaker Jim Black and those associated with him. The SBI was the sole law enforcement agency investigating Representative Thomas Wright. The criminal investigation involving public corruption in Robeson County required the effort of five SBI agents over a period of more than six years to bring to justice former Sheriff Glenn Maynor and 20 additional officers from that sheriff’s office.

Several of the public corruption cases investigated by the SBI were also prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office at the request of local District Attorneys. In other cases, our SBI agents work closely with state and federal prosecutors to uncover corruption and bring public officials who break the law to justice.

The SBI also appreciates Attorney General Cooper’s leadership in fighting for more agents to investigate public corruption and more tools to help us root out wrongdoing, such as better financial disclosure by elected officials, investigative grand juries, and making lying to an SBI agent a felony.

The SBI will continue to work closely with its federal, state and local law enforcement colleagues to protect the citizens of our state from public corruption and other crimes.

Sincerely,
Robin Pendergraft
Director, NC State Bureau of Investigation