Ex-speaker's fall began at first taste of power in '97
By Scott Sexton
Winston-Salem Journal
Let’s have a quick show of hands. All those who are genuinely shocked and surprised that the tawdry business of soliciting bribes stretched way back to the beginning of Jim Black’s drive for power rather than merely cropping up toward the end, please take one step forward.
A glance around the room shows that the answer is … no one.
That little nugget of information got swamped by the stunning $1 million fine that Judge Donald Stephens of Wake Superior Court gave the former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, on top of a five-year federal prison term, during Black’s sentencing Tuesday on a state political-corruption charge.
Yet Black himself spit out that detail when he testified that Mike Decker, a former GOP representative from Walkertown, came to him in 1997 with his hand out seeking money in exchange for supporting Black for speaker in his first drive for power - similar to the bribe Decker asked for (and received) in 2003.
“That’s true. I did that,” Decker said. “I submit that those things were not mistakes. I was wrong, I was sinning and God has a way of chastening his children.
“I’m glad I have confessed and gotten my heart right. I know some skeptics out there won’t want to believe that.”
Winston-Salem Journal
Let’s have a quick show of hands. All those who are genuinely shocked and surprised that the tawdry business of soliciting bribes stretched way back to the beginning of Jim Black’s drive for power rather than merely cropping up toward the end, please take one step forward.
A glance around the room shows that the answer is … no one.
That little nugget of information got swamped by the stunning $1 million fine that Judge Donald Stephens of Wake Superior Court gave the former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, on top of a five-year federal prison term, during Black’s sentencing Tuesday on a state political-corruption charge.
Yet Black himself spit out that detail when he testified that Mike Decker, a former GOP representative from Walkertown, came to him in 1997 with his hand out seeking money in exchange for supporting Black for speaker in his first drive for power - similar to the bribe Decker asked for (and received) in 2003.
“That’s true. I did that,” Decker said. “I submit that those things were not mistakes. I was wrong, I was sinning and God has a way of chastening his children.
“I’m glad I have confessed and gotten my heart right. I know some skeptics out there won’t want to believe that.”
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 8:32 PM
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