Wixie Stephens and Judy Sampson RALEIGH – A Wake County Superior Court judge on Wednesday ruled in favor of two Robeson County commissioners who were accused of bribing at least 21 voters in the March primary election.
He determined there had been no voter irregularities.
Vince Rozier Jr., a judge for Judicial District 10B of the N.C. Superior Court Division, ruled on behalf of Commissioners Judy Sampson and Wixie Stephens, who currently sit on the Robeson County board.
“The judge ruled in our favor,” said Jonathan Charleston, the Fayetteville attorney for the two defendants.
“Today,” he added in a prepared statement, “Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier notified the parties that he was denying the relief sought by (Lacy) Cummings. This ruling effectively ends Cummings’ fifth attempt to be elected to the Board of Commissioners.”
On March 19, Cummings – a 69-year-old businessman from the Mt. Airy community – filed an election protest with the Robeson County Board of Elections after finishing runner-up to incumbent Sampson in the District 5 race.
On March 27, the Robeson County Board of Elections denied his protest.
The N.C. Board of Elections then denied Cummings’ appeal on April 10, saying that he lacked evidence in his claims. As allowed under state law, he appealed to the Wake County court.
All appeals from the N.C. Board of Elections go to the Wake County Superior Court.
Following the state board denial of his protest, Cummings came forward with signed affidavits, as reported by the Border Belt Independent online news site.
“I knew, we knew it was a lie in the beginning,” Sampson said told the Robesonian on Wednesday.
In a written statement, she added, “I wasn’t totally surprised when the petition was dismissed for the third time because my integrity speaks for itself. I didn’t have to buy one single vote. Not one person who called or texted believed any of the news in those (newspaper) articles, especially with the history of Lacy Cummings. This was a conspiracy scheme by Lacy Cummings and his team members to overturn the election by fabricated fraudulent affidavits. Lacy Cummings and his team preyed upon vulnerable people.”
As for Cummings, he largely deferred any comment to his lawyer, Michael Porter.
“I’m going to let my lawyer handle all that,” he said. “We’ve still got some criminal charges and all that going on. So I’ll let them handle everything.”
Porter did not immediately return phone messages left Wednesday at his Fayetteville office.
Stephens said she had no doubt that Cummings’ petition would be dismissed by the court.
“I was appalled that he had the audacity to accuse me falsely of vote buying,” she said. “Unlike him, I have built relationships with people who call me to take them to vote for an election.”
She alleged that “Cummings and one of his team members … took advantage of disabled people.”
“Now,” Stephens added in a statement, “Lacy Cummings and his team member … should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I have bonded people out of jail for falsifying documents, obtaining information by false pretense, perjury and forgery which is a felony. Not only should they both be charged criminally but my attorney will be filing civil charges against both for deformation of my character and slander.”
In his statement, Charleston wrote, “These two women are honorable people with great integrity. Unfortunately, in political campaigns, some candidates believe you can say anything about political opponents without consequence. Rather than accept his March 5th loss to Commissioner Sampson, Cummings, instead, in his pleadings, raised questions concerning ‘voter tampering, election fraud and election irregularities.’ “
In the affidavits, Cummings alleged that Stephens paid at least nine residents up to $60 to vote for incumbent Sampson in the March 5 Democratic primary for the commissioners’ District 5 seat, the Border Belt reported, citing a legal petition in Wake County Superior Court.
In a signed affidavit, the publication said, one voter said Stephens — who owns a bail bond company in Lumberton — gave her cash, bought her a seafood dinner and promised to bail her out if she ever returned to jail. Another voter said Stephens waived a $200 bond payment in exchange for casting a vote for Sampson.
The petition also says Sampson wrote a check for $160 to be split among another 11 voters, according to the publication.
Cummings acknowledged that he was “kind of disappointed, but not really with the way things are. It was filed a little bit late.”
The defeat was Cummings’ fifth straight loss in his quest for the District 5 seat. An election recount later determined that the final and official spread – following the March 19 canvas – was 875 to 870.
That was the same margin of victory determined in the local canvas.
It was Cummings’ second straight loss to Sampson. Before that, he was defeated three times by the late Raymond Cummings for the right to represent District 5.
“They took advantage of some very vulnerable people,” Sampson said of the signed affidavits. “May God forgive them for taking advantage of these vulnerable people, and may God forgive them for this conspiracy scheme to overturn this election.”
Stephens, an incumbent member of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners, was not running for re-election in the primary.
“It’s her campaign,” Stephens said of Sampson, “and I’m just the manager. But they attacked me so bad. People are really looking at us strange, and we knew this was not true.”
Charleston, who is Sampson and Stephens’ legal counsel, said in his statement:
“In preparing the defense of Commissioners Sampson and Stephens, our lawyers and investigative professionals — including Mike East, the former head of the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, the Financial Crimes Unit and former U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of North Carolina — uncovered numerous instances of perceived election irregularities.
“Commissioners Sampson and Stephens intend to pursue this evidence wherever it leads,” Charleston wrote, “and report the findings to the appropriate authorities.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0