The official story is State Highway Patrol Commander Walter J. Wilson Jr. decided to retire after a year on the job to spend more time with his family. That created the need for a successor, and Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed a lieutenant colonel, Randy Glover, to the post this week.
But Wilson's brother-in-law said in an interview that story is not true. Wilson was forced out, Michael Madras said, because Perdue had someone else in mind for the state's top cop.
Madras said he learned this from Wilson himself minutes after Wilson attended a meeting with Reuben Young, whom Perdue appointed to run the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. Young told Wilson at that meeting June 22, just after Wilson returned from Disney World in Orlando with his family, that he needed to step down.
"He went on vacation and came back, and his boss says, the governor wants you gone," Madras said.
Wilson works at the patrol's headquarters, but he lives in Greenville, so during the workweek he often stays at the home of Madras and his wife, Penny, Wilson's sister. They live in Raleigh.
The alternative version of events leading to Glover's promotion raises questions that Perdue, Young, Wilson and Glover would not discuss. All declined through spokesmen to be interviewed.
Chrissy Pearson, Perdue's press secretary, would not say whether Perdue wanted Wilson out. Pearson also declined to say whether Perdue had sought to promote Glover into the job. (N&O)
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Jones Street Movie
A movie about political inflence in NC State Government:
"By day I run the state and then it's 'Nights in Rodanthe"