In a closing statement to the State Board of Elections, a lawyer for the N.C. Democratic Party said there was no scheme to funnel illegal campaign contributions to former Gov. Mike Easley.

Jim Cooney, an attorney for the party, said that memos from Easley's campaign suggesting such a scheme led to natural questions and allegations. But testimony and evidence showed the scheme didn't exist.

"It didn't happen," Cooney said. "There is no evidence from the way in which the party operated, not a shred of evidence from the way in which the party operated, not a shred of evidence from the way in which things actually occurred, that there was any kind of scheme or plan."

Much of the testimony throughout the State Board of Elections hearings has focused on the coordinated campaign between former Gov. Mike Easley's gubernatorial campaign and the N.C. Democratic Party.

One of the major allegations that has surfaced is that donors believed that they could write big checks to the party that would then be directed to Easley, a scheme to skirt campaign finance law.

The party's defense seems to hone in on the fact that Easley's campaign had a $500,000 commitment to the party in advance of election day in 2004. The money was to be used for get-out-the-vote efforts and general promotion of Democratic candidates.

Easley's hired money raiser, Michael Hayden, said he wasn't briefed regularly on how Easley's campaign was raising for the party. But Hayden and Easley testified that the party's executive director, Scott Falmlen, controlled the money.

Jim Cooney, an attorney for the party, said Tuesday that Easley's campaign raised a lot more money for the party than it got back. Cooney sought to emphasize Wednesday that Easley's campaign and the coordinated campaign were distinct organizations.

"Part of the problem, I think, is we may be running some concepts together," he told Easley as he began asking questions as Easley's testimony neared its fifth hour.

A eastern North Carolina developer, fundraiser and Board of Transportation member testified that he gave checks to the Democratic Party that he expected to be in turn given to former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign.

Lanny Wilson said he and his wife wrote checks to the Easley campaign and were told to re-write the checks for the N.C. Democratic Party.

"It was my understanding that they would flow through the state Democratic Party and the Easley Committee would pay expenses," Wilson said.

Wilson said representatives of the Easley campaign told him it was legal to write checks to the party that were meant for Easley.

State law limits contributions to a candidate to $4,000 per election cycle. There is no limit on contributions to a political party, but checks cannot be designated for a specific purpose.

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There's a bad recession on, but there's a lot of billable hours being added up in the State Board of Elections hearing room.

Whatever comes of the Gov. Mike Easley hearings, the proceeding has given a boost to a bunch of lawyers.

Gov. Mike Easley has his lawyer, Thomas Hicks (pictured at the far right). Hicks worked as a prosecutor under Easley when Easley was a district attorney in Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus counties.

Jim Cooney (pictured next to Hicks) is representing the N.C. Democratic Party. Cooney represented exonerated Duke University lacrosse player Reade Seligmann and former death row inmate Alan Gell.

John Wallace and David Long are representing the Easley campaign.

Ruffin Poole, a lawyer himself, came with his attorney, Joseph Zeszotarski.

Car dealer Robert F. Bleecker testified with his lawyer, Dan Boyce, sitting behind him. There are at least a half dozen other lawyers or paralegals in the room.

Correction: Post now includes correct information about where Easley was a District Attorney.

Four of the lawyers who cleared former Duke University lacrosse players of bogus rape charges will speak about the case at a seminar sponsored by the state Academy of Trial Lawyers.

The session is set for Nov. 30 and is aimed at lawyers, according to a news release from the organization.

The lawyers on the panel each bolstered their already-formidable reputations in their defense of the lacrosse players. The speakers will be Joseph B. Cheshire V, Brad Bannon, Wade Smith and Jim Cooney.

More after the jump

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