Niece gave different answers on job

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:23:56 -0500

In September, when The N&O interviewed the niece of Greene County patronage boss Eddie Carroll Thomas about how she had gotten a job as a state Division of Motor Vehicles examiner, she denied that her uncle had anything to do with it.

"I just saw it online and I applied," said Vanessa Gordon, who works in the Greenville office. She added that "I did contact (state) Sen. John Kerr, and he's the one who told me to apply for the job."

Two weeks later, she told DMV internal investigators looking into Thomas' influence in DMV jobs that she was told to drop Kerr's name. She told them Vickie Keel, another examiner who had also been helped by Thomas, wanted Gordon to say that, Dan Kane reports.

"Vickie Keel had instructed Ms. Gordon to tell the reporter that she got assistance through Senator John Kerr when she applied for her job," the DMV investigative report said. "Ms. Gordon assumed that her uncle [Mr. Thomas] told Ms. Keel to tell her to say that."

Gordon, 38, was hired in May 2006, and makes roughly $32,000 a year. She told investigators that she had given Thomas her job application. She did not know what effect that may have had in getting her the job.

More after the jump.

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Niece gave different answers on job