If you caught the spin from Mike Easley’s lawyer after his client pled guilty to a felony the message is this: Easley has been signing off on campaign finance reports since 1982, he was bound to make a mistake somewhere along the line (surprised no one brought up Easley’s learning disability which caused him to be given oral, as opposed to written, legal exams) but being the stand up guy that he is, Easley takes full responsibility for any errors someone else made in those reports. As a result, he accepts the technical finding of a deficiency for failing disclose a single helicopter ride, will pay his fine, and will go about serving his community in any way possible.
In other words, 27 years of filling out campaign reports and one $1000 error equates to a little over $37 a year in fines. See? What a mountain out of a pocket-change molehill. Move along good people. Nothing to see here.
Bonus Observation: Of all people Parks Helms comes very close to nailing the reason prosecutors pulled back from going the federal grand jury route with Easley — it was perceived as bad business for the state of North Carolina.
