Unsolved mysteries: Jim Black's van

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on August 17, 2007 - 12:24pm.
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Jim Black's testimony raised as many questions as it answered.

Rereading the disgraced former House speaker's testimony recently, Dome wondered about an aside that he made about former Rep. Michael Decker.

Black said that he wanted to help Decker, who was living in a van. He testified that he gave Decker $10,000 to buy a new one.

"It started out I was going to give him the van, and then I thought I'd have access to it," Black testified. (Read the exchange on page 28 here.) 

But Black told prosecutors that the van deal "didn't work out."

Clearly, Black wasn't intending to give Decker a new van, since he wouldn't have been unable to buy one. His wording about "access" makes it sound like he was going to get a van from someone who had one they didn't need.

In that case, whose van was it?

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Re: Unsolved mysteries: Jim Black's van

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on August 19, 2007 - 10:53am.

An alternative interpretation is that Black wanted to give Decker a van so that Black could have access to it afterward. The wording is not clear.

— RTB 

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Re: Unsolved mysteries: Jim Black's van

Submitted by MeckDeck on August 18, 2007 - 11:32am.

Ryan, I see what you are going for --- Black thought he knew of a "free" van floating around out there some where on in the fringes of the Down East Kleptocracy.

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Re: Unsolved mysteries: Jim Black's van

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on August 17, 2007 - 3:50pm.

Sorry for the confusion. What I meant was that Jim Black clearly had the money to buy a van since he later gave it to Decker, and I've never known a car dealer who would turn away someone with cash on hand. So he wasn't referring to buying a van for Michael Decker. Q.E.D.

Hope that clears things up.

— RTB 

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Re: Unsolved mysteries: Jim Black's van

Submitted by Proctor on August 17, 2007 - 12:41pm.

Dome copy desk: Can you figure out what Dome was saying grammatically in that next-to-last paragraph? I.e., "since he wouldn't have been unable to buy one?"

Wasn't Dr. Black just simply trying to help Mr. Decker to upgrade his personal situation while serving as a state representative in Raleigh? Maybe it was like a musician who gets a little help collaring a nice new dress shirt when it comes time to play for a big dance at the country club.

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