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Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby had decided not to pursue criminal charges following a trio of SBI investigations involving allegations of wrongdoing at the state Division of Motor Vehicles.

The SBI was called in to investigate in 2009 over improper gifts and meals provided DMV employees by Verizon Business, which holds a lucrative no-bid contract to provide computers to state inspection stations. The SBI was also asked to determine whether the state paid Verizon for hundreds of computers that were never delivered.

After reviewing the SBI's report, Willoughby said this week that the gifts and meals, while unethical, did not rise to the level of criminal bribery. He said he also thought that the administrative penalties issued against the employees involved were punishment enough.

"I didn't think criminal charges were warranted," Willoughby said. "Most of that involved ethics and management issues. There was evidence of improper relationships, but there was no evidence of bribery."

The DA said the SBI found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing involving $64,124 in no-bid purchases by DMV from surveillance equipment maker Law Enforcement Associates, a small Raleigh company with ties to then-Senate majority leader Tony Rand.

The purchases were made under the supervision of then-DMV commissioner George Tatum, who is a friend of Rand's, and then-Department of Transportation Sec. Lyndo Tippett, who is Rand's longtime personal accountant. Records showed both Tatum and Tippett owned thousands of shares of LEA stock, as did members of their immediate families.

Willoughby said the purchase amounts involved were relatively small and that there was no direct evidence that Rand, Tippett or Tatum exercised undue influence to persuade their subordinates to buy equipment from the company in which they had an ownership stake.

"There wasn't any evidence of undue influence," Willoughby said.

Willoughby said there would also be no criminal charges from the accusation that Rand pressured the owner of a company that makes devices to thwart drunken drivers to sell out to LEA.

Larry "Jerry" Mobley, the founder and sole owner of Monitech, said that after he spurned Rand's offer to buy his business that he faced retaliation from DMV, which regulated his ability to sell his products in North Carolina.

With some of his closest political allies appearing before a federal grand jury in Raleigh, former Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand said Tuesday he has not been subpoenaed.

Speculation about whether the Fayetteville Democrat had been called to appear before the grand jury has been rampant since his business partner Lyndo Tippett, the former secretary of transportation under Gov. Mike Easley, was subpoenaed last month.

A copy of a subpoena sent to the state Department of Transportation also named Rand, who resigned his legislative seat at the start of the year, as a "relevant party" in the wide-ranging federal investigation of the Easley administration.

Prosecutors also asked DOT for documents and information about state contracts with Law Enforcement Associates, a Raleigh company where Rand serves as board chairman. Tippett, a longtime LEA investor, joined the company's board last year.

Two former LEA board members have accused Rand of scheming to manipulate the company's publicly traded stock. Rand, who was appointed chairman of the state parole board by Gov. Bev Perdue, has denied the accusation.

Rand, then the Senate majority leader, also served as co-chairman of the Governor's Highway Safety Program at the time. The Fayetteville Democrat was in a strong position to draft legislation governing the use of ignition interlocks and directly influence who got the lucrative state contract to sell the devices, which detect alcohol on a driver's breath and prevent the car from starting. (N&O)

ENERGY CHANGE: Gov. Bev Perdue's energy chief, Assistant Commerce Secretary John Morrison, says he has been forced out of his job.

"It's been decided that new leadership is needed for energy," Morrison said. Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco told him of the change last week, he said.

Morrison said there was no "precipitating event" but couldn't discuss the circumstances further. He will leave at the end of this month. In filling a newly created position, Morrison was responsible for coordinating the state's energy programs, staffing a new Energy Policy Council and promoting the governor's focus on green-energy jobs. (Charlotte Observer) 

WHAT ASH PONDS? The state largely ignores millions of tons of ash from coal-fired power plants that threatens to contaminate N.C. groundwater, lakes and streams, the N.C. Sierra Club says in a report today. (Charlotte Observer)

Gov. Bev Perdue says Tony Rand, her choice to lead the state's parole commission, is a 'man of integrity,' despite allegations swirling around him.

Rand has been accused by two men of insider trading through his role as the chairman of the board of Law Enforcement Associates, a company that has sold the state thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Rand has denied any wrongdoing. 

The Fayetteville Observer reports that Perdue, a Democrat, said Monday that she trusts Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat, who is quitting the state Senate this month to lead the parole commission.

"I've known Tony Rand as a man of integrity," she said. "I've never known him to lie to me. He's never, ever. And so I have trusted him."

Perdue said Rand would still be bound by her new executive orders, which call for the ouster of any appointee who refuses to cooperate with an investigation or who is indicted.

"I would hold him and all of our appointees to the same litmus test that you saw me announce last week," the governor said. "If I have an appointee who refuses to cooperate with any kind of official body, refuses to answer questions, we will dismiss them. Anybody that's indicted will be dismissed immediately, before a formal trial happens."

As he strode through the North Raleigh headquarters of Law Enforcement Associates Inc. on Thursday, Tony Rand didn't act much like the chairman of a publicly traded company.

Rather than trying to impress visitors with how hands-on and knowledgeable he is about the security device manufacturer's operations, Rand, who as majority leader of the N.C. Senate is among the state's most powerful politicians, repeatedly asked several of the company's 30 employees how many times they had ever seen him.

Most said they had not laid eyes on him more than once or twice, and only in the past year or two, Michael Biesecker reports.

Standing next to a man assembling a circuit board for one of the company's impossibly small digital audio transmitters, Rand was asked how often he had visited the factory floor.

"I think I might have come back here once, looking for the bathroom," Rand replied.

Lest anyone think he is trying to distance himself from LEA, however, the 70-year-old senator repeatedly said he is excited about the company's prospects and plans to become more involved in the firm after he retires at the end of the month from the legislative seat he has held for more than two decades.

LEA is one of a handful of firms competing in the niche industry of providing covert surveillance gadgets to law enforcement agencies. Many of its products are so secret that viewing its online catalog requires a password. Rand's ties to the company have become an issue. A former employee has accused Rand of insider trading and state records show that the state has spent thousands of dollars on the company's products.

Rand denies any wrongdoing.

The Department of Transportation manager whose office bought $15,800 worth of electronic road flares from Law Enforcement Associates says former DOT secretary Lyndo Tippett didn't know anything about the purchase.

The former CEO of the Raleigh company last month accused its board chairman, Sen. Tony Rand, of insider trading. Tippett, who is Rand's personal accountant, owned stock in the company while he was head of DOT and was named last week to the private firm's board. The former secretary has not returned calls seeking comment about his involvment in LEA.

Barry Moose, the top engineer for the DOT division that includes Charlotte, said the 2008 equipment purchase went through the department's routine bid process.

That is in contrast to $64,124 in LEA purchases made by the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles without seeking competitive bids. George Tatum, the DMV commissioner at the time and a Rand friend, also owns LEA stock.

Staff at the N.C. State Ethics Commission said Tuesday they could not comment on whether former DMV Commissioner George Tatum violated the law when he failed to disclose his personal stock investment in Law Enforcement Associates, a surveillance device company that sold equipment to DMV on a no-bid basis.

The state commission is forbidden by the 2006 law that created it from disclosing any information about enforcement action it might pursue or any complaints it has received.

That legislation was, of course, created by the same elected officials who might someday be called to account for ethical transgressions. Apparently, making the enforcement process open and transparent was not a top priority.

There's a famous philosophical conundrum that asks: "If a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

That begs the question: If a watchdog can't bark, is it still a watchdog?

Gov. Bev Perdue said she has asked the state Department of Transportation to look into the purchases of expensive high-tech surveillance equipment from a private security firm with ties to Tony Rand, her incoming parole board chairman.

"I think we need to get to the bottom of all the questions that have been raised in the media," Perdue told reporters Tuesday after a news conference at a Raleigh warehouse to announce a new task force, Rob Christensen reports.

"I have asked that the Secretary of Transportation to do that," Perdue said.

She said purchases made by the Division of Motor Vehicles and other state agencies were being reviewed. She said the results would be made public.

The News and Observer reported over the weekend that at least four state agencies had purchased equipment from the Raleigh-based Law Enforcement Associates since 2003.

Rand is chairman of the board of the company. He is stepping down as Senate majority leader to become Perdue's parole chief.