A spokeswoman is defending Attorney General Roy Cooper.

In an e-mail to Dome, public information officer Noelle Talley said that the attorney general's office won't comment on any current or potential investigation.

Cooper has been criticized by Republicans who think he should be more vocal about recent news reports about former Gov. Mike Easley's potential violations of campaign finance laws.

Talley noted that Cooper has investigated a number of high-profile Democrats.

"During Attorney General Cooper's tenure, his lawyers and SBI agents have investigated more than 500 public corruption cases, including Jim Black, Thomas Wright, Meg Scott Phipps and Frank Ballance," she wrote.

She added that the department has often worked with other prosecutors.

"Although we have no original prosecution authority, our Department frequently works with federal authorities and local district attorneys to bring charges against elected and appointed officials," she wrote. "The Attorney General can serve as a Special Prosecutor when requested by a local district attorney."

Previously: Senate Republican leader calls for special prosecutor.

Roy Cooper said reports of deaths in state mental hospitals should be made public.

During a taping of "Headline Saturday," the state attorney general was asked about the heavy redactions of reports by the state Department of Health and Human Services.

"We believe, and have advised the department, those death notices should be open," he said. "We know there are significant problems with our mental health system. ... I do believe that, overall, the most important thing is erring on the side of public disclosure."

Thursday evening, a spokeswoman said Cooper had misspoken about the details of what the office had advised DHHS officials.

"The attorney general believed that department attorneys had advised that death records should be open but determined this afternoon that this was not the case," said Noelle Talley in a statement. 

She said he is working with legislators to change the law so that they can be open. (N&O)

Women are well represented in the attorney general's office.

Although there are few female district attorneys or sheriffs in North Carolina, nearly half of the staff attorneys in Roy Cooper's office are women — 142 out of 297 attorneys. They handle civil and criminal cases, offer consumer protection and provide legal advice to state boards and commissions.

According to spokeswoman Noelle Talley, a number of women also serve in leadership roles in the Department of Justice. Out of the 110 leadership positions at the State Bureau of Investigation, 21 are held by women, including Director Robin Pendergraft.

Cooper appointed Pendergraft in 2001, making her the first woman to hold that post.

In addition, Cooper's chiefs of staff, Kristi Hyman and her predecessor Julia White, are both women, as is the head of the N.C. Justice Academy, which provides training to local law enforcement agencies.

"He's made it a priority to make sure that women are well-represented throughout the Department of Justice," Talley said.

Roy Cooper says he investigates corruption too.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general e-mailed Dome today to note that the State Bureau of Investigation, which he oversees, also played a role in the corruption cases mentioned in a recent N&O article.

In a sidebar to the story, we had written that the Eastern District U.S. Attorney's office brought down a number of prominent Democrats in recent years, including Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, former Speaker Jim Black, U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance and lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings.

Spokeswoman Noelle Talley said that the SBI was involved in those cases and more than 450 public corruption cases over the past eight years.

"Keep in mind that under state law, our office can take over criminal prosecution of cases when requested to by local District Attorneys," she wrote. "We are often asked by DAs to prosecute cases against public officials including sheriffs, judges, state legislators and others."

She added that Cooper has pushed for the legislature to give his office the power to convene investigative grand juries in public corruption cases.

As we noted, federal prosecutors have more powerful grand juries than state and local prosecutors.

State Department of Justice employees had an uncomfortable day without air conditioning, phones or Internet access after a ruptured pipe flooded the sub-basement of the Old Education Building in downtown Raleigh late Wednesday.

The power was restored before the work day began, but the air conditioning didn't come back on until early afternoon, said Jill Lucas, a spokeswoman for the Department of Administration, which manages state buildings.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said phone and Internet service was still an issue at the end of the work day.

She went home after several hours to check email.

"I have a laptop I take back and forth to work," Talley said. "It's convenient at a time like this."

Two months after DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton asked the SBI to review the purchase of a portrait by former hospital director Patsy Christian, there is no word about when agents might wrap up their investigation.

Tom Lawrence, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said Monday that Benton has not yet received any response from investigators, Michael Biesecker reports.

Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, did not respond to inquiries last week about the status of the investigation.

Benton requested the SBI probe May 29, following a report in the N&O about the oil painting Christian commissioned of herself to hang at the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

The portrait, which cost a combined $571.98 once installed in a gilded frame, was painted on contract by a state employee who was subordinate to Christian and provided to the state at a steep discount of its proclaimed value.

The SBI was asked to examine the events surrounding the commission and purchase of the portrait to assure that no state laws were violated.

Benton said the state money spent on the portrait, which came from vending machine receipts meant to pay for field trips and other recreation for mental patients, would be recovered and that the painting would never hang in the new hospital.

Lawrence said the painting has been returned to the artist, who is a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital. A check equal to the portrait's cost was deposited into the hospital's account, though Lawrence said he did not know who the check was from.

Christian resigned as the director of Central Regional June 11. She is still on the state payroll in a new administrative position Benton created for her, earning $114,056 annually.

Update: Lawrence said Tuesday that a check reimbursing the state for the cost of the portrait was sent by J. Lee Harris, the artist who painted it. She is also a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital and a former subordinate of Christian's. 

Richard Moore is hiring his own attorney on a public records lawsuit.

The state treasurer asked Attorney General Roy Cooper for permission not to use state attorneys to represent him in a lawsuit filed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina over a public records request about the state pension fund.

Under state law, the attorney general must approve the hiring of outside counsel.

Cooper approved the request Friday and took special deputy attorneys general Melissa Trippe and Alec Peters off the lawsuit, according to spokeswoman Noelle Talley.

"It's fairly unusual," she said. "But in this case, there was a strong difference of opinion between our office and theirs about how to proceed."

Moore has since hired the Shanahan Law Group, a Raleigh firm that specializes in business and governmental litigation.

Talley would not elaborate on the disagreement.

"That's all we're going to say at this point," she said.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has been blacklisted, but it's really more like black humor.

His name was published on a the Web site for the Predatory Lending Association, a bogus trade group that poses as a resource for payday lenders, Titan Barksdale reports.

The Web site, however, lampoons predatory lending, and credits Cooper for ridding North Carolina of major payday lenders. Cooper has taken an aggressive stance against payday lenders in North Carolina suing and prosecuting them.

"Mr. Cooper claims to 'bust scams that prey on unsuspecting people,' but his anti-competitive policies have busted our profits from predatory lending," the Web site says.

The site lists Cooper and several opponents of predatory lending such as Martin Eakes, founder of the Center for Responsible Lending. Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, called the blacklisting of Cooper "hilarious."

The Kansas City Star published a story on the Web site this week, which was created by a Topeka native and former Microsoft employee.

Cliff Bennett also sought records on Roy Cooper.

The Michigan resident, revealed as an alias for Treasurer Richard Moore's staffer Julie White, filed public records requests with the attorney general's office in early 2006, when Cooper was still a potential candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Cooper spokeswoman Noelle Talley said they were for staff salary information, recent settlements and the use of outside counsel on major cases.

She said she didn't worry much about Bennett's identity.

"We get so many requests for public information, we don't think about them," she said. "We don't really spend a lot of time trying to figure out where they come from."

Previously: Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue complains about Bennett's requests; Bennett sought records from the State Ethics Commission.