DECKER'S DEMISE: Little fish took the bait
By Scott Sexton
Winston-Salem Journal
Like any good fisherman, House Speaker Jim Black baited more than one hook when he went fishing for the one vote that would keep him in power.
Sometime between the 2002 election that left Republicans with a 61-59 majority over Democrats in the House and January 2003, Black, a Democrat, met with a couple of Republican minnows - Reps. Mike Decker of Walkertown and Steve Wood of High Point - ostensibly to feel them out about switching parties.
Decker bit and wound up snared in a federal net. Wood refused and thus was able to avoid standing next to Decker yesterday pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge.
Decker will go to prison for up to five years, but that's a lot less time than he might have gotten if he hadn't accepted a plea bargain from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Had Decker been convicted of affecting commerce by extortion (basically selling his vote as a state representative), money laundering and mail fraud, he could have been looking at as much as 40 years in a federal penitentiary.
"It's a fair deal," said David Freedman, Decker's attorney, in what could be the understatement of the century. "He definitely decreased his exposure tremendously."
Winston-Salem Journal
Like any good fisherman, House Speaker Jim Black baited more than one hook when he went fishing for the one vote that would keep him in power.
Sometime between the 2002 election that left Republicans with a 61-59 majority over Democrats in the House and January 2003, Black, a Democrat, met with a couple of Republican minnows - Reps. Mike Decker of Walkertown and Steve Wood of High Point - ostensibly to feel them out about switching parties.
Decker bit and wound up snared in a federal net. Wood refused and thus was able to avoid standing next to Decker yesterday pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge.
Decker will go to prison for up to five years, but that's a lot less time than he might have gotten if he hadn't accepted a plea bargain from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Had Decker been convicted of affecting commerce by extortion (basically selling his vote as a state representative), money laundering and mail fraud, he could have been looking at as much as 40 years in a federal penitentiary.
"It's a fair deal," said David Freedman, Decker's attorney, in what could be the understatement of the century. "He definitely decreased his exposure tremendously."
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 5:45 PM
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