Pubdate: Fri, 25 Oct 2002
Source: Wilmington Morning Star (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500
Author: Todd Volkstorf, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

SHERIFF CANDIDATES TRADE SHOTS

No one can tell whose hands are dirty, but mud is flying in the race for 
New Hanover County sheriff.

Democratic candidate Col. Sid Causey has been forced to fend off apparently 
baseless allegations of corruption, while Republican Marc Benson reels from 
the circulation of personnel records detailing his 1997 termination from 
the department.

The allegations against Col. Causey, a 20-plus-year veteran of the 
department, have been leveled via anonymously authored e-mails, a Web site 
and mailings that claim he's corrupt.

And while Mr. Benson says he doesn't condone the anonymous material, he has 
said publicly that he believes the unsubstantiated charges to be true.

Col. Causey insists the material, which is directed at his supporters, is 
meant to harm him, and at the same time denies Mr. Benson's charges that he 
had anything to do with the release of Mr. Benson's personnel documents.

Several weeks ago, Gary Shipman, New Hanover County Democratic Party 
chairman, faxed a release to area media outfits calling for Mr. Benson to 
"come clean" about the end of his career in the department he's vying to lead.

Mr. Benson and the New Hanover County Republican Party quickly fired back, 
alleging Mr. Shipman and Col. Causey were trying to smear his reputation.

At the same time, the anonymously authored material against Col. Causey had 
already made it to his supporters, detractors and the media.

Along with a claim that the DEA and the FBI are investigating Col. Causey's 
involvement in a drug investigation between New Hanover County and Tampa, 
Fla., an excerpt asks if local media are conspiring to protect the Democrat.

About the only nugget of confirmed truth - according to investigators with 
Tampa police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration involved with the 
case - is that Col. Causey and others from the local City County Vice and 
Narcotics Unit went to Florida as part of a drug investigation.

In June 2000, Col. Causey, a captain at the time, went to Tampa on more 
than one occasion to extradite two men who faced drug trafficking charges 
in North Carolina. Through the investigation, Tampa police seized a 
quantity of drugs, and the Tampa office of the DEA seized nearly $80,000 in 
drug money.

The anonymously authored Web site, e-mail and letters claim that Col. 
Causey attempted to spring one of the suspected traffickers from jail and 
take the nearly $80,000 of drug money - a claim that lacks any verifiable 
evidence.

"The money in question was seized in Tampa by the DEA and forfeited and 
shared with the agencies involved. And it's well-documented," said Jon 
Wilson, resident agent in charge of the Wilmington office of the DEA.

"I dispersed the checks," he said.

The agencies involved included Wilmington police, the New Hanover County 
Sheriff's Department, Tampa police and the DEA.

Wayne Robinson, a Tampa police detective, said he assisted North Carolina 
investigators on the case, and that while he thought what Col. Causey did 
then was "kind of odd," it wasn't illegal.

Detective Robinson took issue with Col. Causey's unannounced arrival in 
Tampa at one time during the investigation. But "no one had any reason to 
believe he did anything wrong," he said.

Col. Causey said what Detective Robinson thought was odd was a ranking 
officer working in the field.

"I'm not a pencil-pusher. I work in the field," Col. Causey said. "The sad 
part about this is, it was a good case. Our main concern was cutting off 
the flow of narcotics into New Hanover County and the Wilmington area."

Reluctant to discuss the e-mails and Web site, Col. Causey called the 
material "slanderous, baseless lies sent out by people who are desperate to 
gain control of the sheriff's department."

"I intend to pursue this after the election," he added.

While Mr. Benson contends he doesn't know who authored the material and 
doesn't condone it being done on his behalf, he said he "absolutely" 
believes it.

"I've gotten a copy of that e-mail. . We've got a serious problem with that 
... if it is true, and we have found it to be true. I knew about that 
stuff, but I thought it was a rumor," Mr. Benson said at a news conference 
he held about two weeks ago.

"It reeks of impropriety and cover-up," he said.

Despite his familiarity with the case, Mr. Benson did not provide any 
evidence supporting what he apparently believes.

"I'd love you to have more proof," Mr. Benson said. "The information I got 
from several different sources say they were just shy of placing Causey 
under arrest," he said, refusing to divulge those sources.

Detective Robinson said, "I don't have any reason to think Causey wasn't 
acting in good faith."

Numerous attempts to contact the anonymous author of the material at the 
e-mail address provided have been unsuccessful.

Walt DeVries, executive director of the Institute of Political Leadership 
at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, said, "You can say 
anything you want in a Web site."

Although he wasn't familiar with either the Web site or the e-mail - which 
link Col. Causey to, among other things, Middle Eastern terrorists - it's 
the first time Dr. DeVries said he has heard of the Internet being used 
locally for negative campaigning.

"It's something new, and it may be effective," Dr. DeVries said. "But it's 
like a cycle: After a while it starts to work against you. People get fed 
up with it."

Fed up is apparently what Debbie Keck, the New Hanover County Republican 
Party chairwoman, felt when Mr. Benson's personnel files were sent to the 
media. Soon after, she called for Mr. Shipman to step down as chair of the 
county's Democratic Party.

Around the same time that Mr. Shipman faxed his release to the media asking 
Mr. Benson to "come clean," the same outfits received an anonymous package 
containing a cover letter and personnel documents outlining Mr. Benson's 
termination from the sheriff's department in 1997.

In September 1998, Mr. Benson filed a $3 million wrongful termination 
lawsuit against former Sheriff Joe McQueen, who fired him. The lawsuit was 
later settled, and settlement agreements allowed Mr. Benson to legally say 
he resigned from the department.

Several weeks ago, Mr. Shipman said he heard Mr. Benson say on a local 
radio program that he resigned. Mr. Shipman said he thought the statement 
was false since the agreement allowing him to say he resigned was made with 
the county and not the public.

Ms. Keck called for a state investigation into possible election law 
violations by Mr. Shipman, his law firm, the New Hanover County Sheriff's 
Department, the New Hanover County Democrat Party and the Causey campaign.

Sheriff Sonny Lanier said the files didn't come from his office, an 
allegation publicly leveled by Democrat Nathan Johnson, a former sheriff's 
department employee who crossed party lines to endorse Mr. Benson after 
being soundly beaten in the Democratic primary for sheriff by Col. Causey.

The personnel files were out in the open after Mr. Benson filed his lawsuit 
against Sheriff McQueen, Sheriff Lanier said.

"Anybody could've gotten them then," he said, a notion supported by the 
State Bureau of Investigation, which concluded its investigation into the 
matter Monday.

District Attorney John Carriker, a Democrat, reported the SBI's conclusions 
in a news release. He said locked access to the files was not maintained 
until about a year ago, and that from April 14, 2000, until Sept. 8, 2000, 
the files were public record in the U.S. Court Clerk's Office. The 
unauthorized copying of information in personnel files is a Class 3 
misdemeanor subject to a fine of up to $500.

Citing similarities in the styles of writing in the cover letter 
accompanying the files and Mr. Shipman's news release, Mr. Benson said he 
believes Mr. Shipman sent the files to the media.

"I didn't leak his personnel documents," Mr. Shipman said.

Libertarian candidate Paul Johnson has stayed out of any mud slinging but 
said he had seen the anonymous material directed at Col. Causey and called 
for the author to come out.

"Whoever wrote it is a coward, and they should expose themselves or go 
away," he said.
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