The campaign treasurer for N.C. House Speaker Jim Black has admitted on the stand today that she has filled in the “payee” name on incomplete checks from optometrists.
And Virginia Kelly says that might include checks cashed by Black’s campaign, as well as checks that headed to other candidates.
But Kelly’s memory is less clear about who asked her to fill out those checks.
Consider this exchange with state elections board chairman Larry Leake, concerning a check from the N.C. State Optometric Society Political Action Committee dated January 27, 2003:
Leake: So that check was received in blank, and you filled it in with the proper political committee?
Kelly: Yes.
Leake: Did anybody instruct you what to do or how to do that?
Kelly: I really don’t remember, but somebody would have instructed me. I wouldn’t have just done it on my own.
Leake: But you don’t remember who that person was?
Kelly: No, I do not.
Leake: Could that have been Dr. (Speaker Jim) Black?
Kelly: Yes, it could, but I don’t remember that in particular.
Leake: Could that have been Scott Edwards (of the Optometric Society)?
Kelly: Yes.
Asked about any other similar checks, Kelly said: “There may have been a few others, but I really don’t remember it.”
Kelly also says she wrote a $4,000 check to former Rep. Michael Decker’s campaign fund in 2005. Decker deposited the check, closed the account within a day and pocketed the money. State law allowed him to take that step.
The hearing resumes at 2 p.m.
