State v. Bradsher

852 S.E.2d 716

STATE of North Carolina,

v.Wallace BRADSHER, Defendant.

No. COA 19-365

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

Filed: December 31, 2020

Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Deputy Solicitor General James W. Doggett, for the State.

Assistant Appellate Defender Michele A. Goldman and Appellate Defender Glenn Gerding, for Defendant.

McGEE, Chief Judge.

Wallace Bradsher ("Mr. Bradsher" or "Defendant Bradsher") was indicted by a grand jury in a superseding indictment on 24 October 2017 charging him with conspiracy to commit the offense of obtaining property by false pretenses, obtaining property by false pretenses, aiding and abetting the offense of obtaining property by false pretenses, three counts of obstruction of justice, and failure to discharge the duties of his office. The case was tried at the 29 May 2018 session of Superior Court, Wake County. At trial, Defendant Bradsher, representing himself, moved to dismiss all charges at the close of the State's evidence. The motion to dismiss was denied. Defendant Bradsher declined to present any evidence. A jury found Defendant Bradsher not guilty of conspiracy to commit the offense of obtaining property by false pretenses and one count of obstruction of justice. The jury found Defendant guilty of one count of felony obstruction of justice, one count of misdemeanor obstruction of justice, two counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, and one count of failure to discharge the duties of his office. The trial court arrested judgment on the count of obtaining property by false pretenses based on the theory of acting in concert, but entered judgment on the count of aiding and abetting obtaining property by false pretenses.

I. Factual and Procedural History

Mr. Bradsher was elected to the position of district attorney for Prosecutorial District 9A, comprised of Person and Caswell Counties, and assumed office on 1 January 2011. Prior to his election, Mr. Bradsher was a criminal defense attorney in private practice and employed his wife, Pam Bradsher ("Ms. Bradsher"), at his law office. When he became district attorney, Mr. Bradsher hired Ms. Bradsher to work as support staff in his district attorney's office.

In 2013, Craig Blitzer ("Mr. Blitzer"), was a criminal defense attorney in private practice considering running for district attorney for Prosecutorial District 17A, composed solely of Rockingham County, just west of District 9A. Like Mr. Bradsher, Mr. Blitzer's wife, Cindy Blitzer ("Cindy or Ms. Blitzer"), worked at his law firm in private practice. Mr. Blitzer was aware that Ms. Bradsher worked for Mr. Bradsher in the neighboring prosecutorial district and Mr. Blitzer hired his wife to work on his support staff in his district attorney's office. He asked Mr. Bradsher whether he had any issues employing his wife at the district attorney's office and Mr. Bradsher said he did not.

Mr. Blitzer did run for the district attorney seat and was elected in 2014. Ms. Blitzer was close to finishing nursing school, but quit school to help Mr. Blitzer with his campaign. After taking office, Mr. Blitzer hired Ms. Blitzer to work for him in his district attorney's office.

The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts ("AOC") soon noticed both Mr. Blitzer and Mr. Bradsher had employed their wives in their respective offices. Margaret Wiggins ("Ms. Wiggins"), AOC's Human Resources Officer, emailed both Mr. Bradsher and Mr. Blitzer on 8 January 2015, and informed each that hiring their wives violated the anti-nepotism laws of the State Ethics Act and they were not permitted to do so. Ms. Wiggins suggested they seek a waiver from the State Ethics Commission if they wanted to continue to employ their own wives.

As a result of the information from Ms. Wiggins, Mr. Bradsher sought a waiver of the State Ethics Act from the Commission so he could continue Ms. Bradsher's employment. Mr. Bradsher and Mr. Blitzer were told they could not employ their own wives while awaiting a decision on a waiver request. Mr. Bradsher suggested, as an interim solution, that he and Mr. Blitzer could hire each other's wife as an employee. Both hoped the employment change would be temporary. Mr. Bradsher sought approval from Ms. Wiggins who, after consulting with counsel for AOC, approved the plan because it did not violate the Act.

The Bradshers and the Blitzers met at a restaurant to discuss the plan. At the meeting, Mr. Blitzer told Mr. Bradsher that Ms. Blitzer wanted to return to school to complete her nursing degree eventually. Mr. Bradsher said he would try to help Ms. Blitzer finish her nursing degree at a community college.

Ms. Bradsher quit her job in district 9A and was hired in district 17A. At the same time, Ms. Blitzer quit her job in district 17A and was hired in district 9A. As an employee of Mr. Bradsher, Ms. Blitzer initially worked in a secondary office located in Caswell County, which was closer to the Blitzers’ residence in Rockingham County. Her supervisor was an assistant district attorney, John Stultz III ("Mr. Stultz"), who was in charge of that office. As her supervisor, Mr. Stultz was responsible for approving Ms. Blitzer's hours in BEACON, the timekeeping and payroll system used by AOC. Ms. Blitzer would submit her hours worked in BEACON for Mr. Stultz's approval.

Five weeks after beginning work at the District 9A Caswell office, Ms. Blitzer decided the office arrangement was unacceptable. She testified that she "had no space to work[,]" lacked a computer, and that the commute was too long. She discussed these issues with Mr. Stultz and with her husband, Mr. Blitzer. She asked Mr. Blitzer to discuss the issue with Mr. Bradsher. At trial, she testified her husband said he spoke with Mr. Bradsher and he said she could work out of the Rockingham County office of Prosecutorial District 17A while still being employed by District 9A. She testified she was happy about the change because the new location "was air conditioned and cool in that office and there was a desk and an office for [her] to work in with a computer[,]" and "it was much closer to home[.]" She testified she was also permitted to work at home if needed.

Ms. Blitzer testified that, while she was working in the Caswell office, she would "go to the courtroom with Mr. Stultz and [ ] speak to victim witnesses, basically anything Mr. Stultz needed [her] to do." As part of her job responsibilities, both before and after the change, Ms. Blitzer was asked to work on cases that District 17A had transferred to 9A because of conflicts of interest that prevented Mr. Blitzer from working on them. One of her responsibilities was a "conflict case" involving an infant homicide called the Shockley case. Mr. Stultz was the attorney assigned to the Shockley case. Ms. Blitzer testified she organized the "extensive" evidence for the Shockley case.

The summer of 2015, the State Ethics Commission informed Mr. Bradsher the State Ethics Act's anti-nepotism laws were not waivable. Ms. Bradsher soon resigned from Mr. Blitzer's office and took a new job at a local community college. When Ms. Bradsher resigned, Mr. Blitzer hired Tyler Henderson ("Mr. Henderson"). Although he was employed by District 17A, Mr. Blitzer assigned Mr. Henderson to work in District 9A exclusively on 9A matters. Mr. Blitzer did not supervise Mr. Henderson's work. Ms. Blitzer, meanwhile, was still employed by District 9A but working in 17A.

Sometime in 2015, an assistant district attorney in Mr. Blitzer's office told the State Bureau of Investigation ("SBI") that Ms. Blitzer was not working the hours she said she was and the SBI began investigating. Mr. Blitzer learned about the investigation in December 2015, but did not tell his wife or Mr. Bradsher about it. The 2015 investigation was quickly dropped, but a subsequent internal SBI investigation did not explain why.

Mr. Stultz asked Mr. Bradsher to reassign the Shockley case in August 2015 and Mr. Bradsher took over the case himself. In early March 2016, Mr. Bradsher and Mr. Henderson went to the District 17A office, where Ms. Blitzer worked, to get the Shockley case file from her in order to prepare the case for trial. Mr. Blitzer testified that he told Mr. Bradsher about the 2015 SBI investigation that day. According to Mr. Blitzer, Mr. Bradsher told him to vary Ms. Blitzer's time by entering vacation and sick time. Time records produced by AOC and introduced at trial however, indicated that the only varied hours entered by Ms. Blitzer occurred between 21 January and 17 February 2016. Mr. Blitzer testified that Ms. Blitzer worked the hours entered into BEACON until the Shockley case file was taken in March 2016, but after that, Ms. Blitzer "had nothing to do." Although Ms. Blitzer testified she tried to call Mr. Bradsher about having nothing to do, she did not recall whether she left a message and did not recall sending him any text messages. She then testified she thought she probably did leave him a message but did not remember what she said and afterward solely relied on her husband to communicate with Mr. Bradsher.

Ms. Blitzer had always planned to return to school to complete her nursing degree. Ms. Blitzer learned that, despite Mr. Bradsher's efforts, she would not be able to complete her nursing degree at Person Community College as he had suggested, because, after she completed the required testing, they wanted her to retake almost half the curriculum she had already completed before she withdrew from her previous program. Ms. Blitzer was unwilling to do so. She began exploring other ways to finish her degree and chose to apply to an accelerated nursing program which required her to retake some classes. Ms. Blitzer began online courses while still employed by District 9A and working in District 17A. Mr. Blitzer directed two of his employees to help Ms. Blitzer complete the online courses by logging into Ms. Blitzer's online account and helping her complete homework and a test during work hours.

In April...