Several House members were disturbed, even shocked, when they saw Rep. Cary Allred embrace and kiss a teenage girl on the chamber floor, according to a report summarizing an investigation into the incident.
The report by House sergeant at arms, Bob Samuels, includes written statements from several lawmakers, including Allred. The report will be forwarded to the legislature's ethics committee, which would consider whether to take any action.
Allred, a Burlington Republican, says he was not drunk on April 27 when he hugged the page, the daughter of a neighbor and family friend.
"The page lives across the road from me and is like my granddaughter," Allred wrote. "Her parents stated...they have no problems with what I did and neither does she."
Others were concerned by what they saw that night. Rep. Paul Stam, the House Republican leader, and Rep. Thom Tillis, the House Republican whip, confronted Allred in the chamber, even before the hug because of his erratic behavior that night.
Tillis recounted that Allred said, "I am 62 years old, and I'm worth $2 million. People ought to show me respect."
Some time after that, several House members said they saw the embrace.
"Representative Allred had a female House Page in what seemed to be a never-ending embrace that resembled a gruesome bear hug," wrote Rep. Mitchell Setzer, a Catawba Republican. "When the embrace finally broke, Representative Allred stepped back for a moment and then he stepped forward and began the hugging procedure again. I have never witnessed anything as unsettling as this in the eleven years that I have been a member of the General Assembly."
More after the jump.
A few more House bills from this afternoon:
H.B. 159: Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Reps. John Blust, Mitchell Setzer, Bryan Holloway
H.B. 161: Require Six-Year-Olds to Attend School, Reps. Rick Glazier, Angela Bryant, Earline Parmon and Ray Rapp
H.B. 162: Elec. Record Interrogation / B1, B2, C Felony, Reps. Glazier, Dan Blue and Deborah Ross
Twenty-four legislators did not get paid for every day.
According to state records, 17 representatives and seven senators asked not to receive their $104 per diems for at least one day during the 2007 session.
Reps. Angela Bryant, William Current, Annie Mobley, Deborah Ross, John Blust, Bill Daughtridge, Laura Wiley, Ruth Samuelson, Pryor Gibson, David Lewis, Mitchell Setzer, Paul Stam, Jennifer Weiss, Martha Alexander, Pricey Harrison, Alice Bordsen and Paul Luebke did not receive pay for every day.
Luebke was the lowest, receiving pay for just 178 days.
Sens. William Purcell, Fred Smith, Clark Jenkins, Harris Blake, Tom Apodaca, Janet Cowell and Marc Basnight did not receive pay for all 191 days of session.
Basnight was the lowest, receiving pay for just 176 days.
Under state policy, legislators automatically receive pay for every day of session, regardless of whether they attend, unless they specifically ask not to be paid for that day.