Strange But True – Parts 3, 4 & 5

No. 3

Gov. Jim Holshouser
Gov. Jim Holshouser

During the inauguration of North Carolina Gov. James E. Holshouser Jr. a 21-year-old N.C. State University sophomore climbed a tree on New Bern Avenue to get a better view.

A State Capitol Policeman told the fellow to come down, but he refused. The policeman climbed up the tree, jabbed the student with his nightstick, maced him, and finally knocked him out of the tree. Then he arrested him, and took him before a magistrate — who  released him.

The magistrate released him because he could find no law against sitting in a tree.

The magistrate said that because the student was not violating a law when the officer ordered him to come down the officer’s order was unlawful.

* * *

No. 4

More than 1,000 patient medical records, covering a decade, were hidden in a wall of the Cherry Point Naval Hospital, according to a report the Navy finally gave me. Instead of filing those records with the patients’ other medical records, hospital corpsmen apparently climbed onto a chair or desk, lifted a ceiling tile, and dropped them into the space behind the drywall.

They could file a lot of records quickly that way and go back to reading a book, or whatever they thought was more important than doing their job.

NavyEmblemMy partner had tried for weeks to get a copy of that Navy report, which we were entitled to have under the Freedom of Information Act. But, plain and simple, it was embarrassing and the Navy was dragging its feet. No, it was worse than that: To save face the Navy was breaking the law.

When I drove to Cherry Point to interview the captain in charge of the hospital I told him I had served in the Navy, aboard USS Los Angeles. My three brothers had been in the Navy. My oldest son and his wife were naval officers.  Both were graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

My family is Navy,” I told the captain. “Why is the Navy doing this to one of its own?”

A few days later the report arrived at The News & Observer where I worked an investigative reporter.

* * *

No. 5

The most unusual traffic case I ever wrote about involved a District Court judge who signed an order changing the date of a drunk driving charge. Bet you thought only God could do something like that, change the date something happened.

The defendant had 15 previous traffic convictions, including two for reckless driving and one for drunken driving. His driver’s license had been revoked five times. And now he was back in court, accused, again, of drunk driving. But why change the date he was caught?

Here’s why.

Under North Carolina law at the time a driver who had not had a drunk driving conviction in the previous seven years was eligible for a limited driving permit. Moving the date 11 days put the the defendant’s conviction outside that seven-year window, and making him eligible for a limited permit, which the judge gave him.

Coming Monday: What Can Go Wrong Will

 

 

 

 

 

Government Misadventures

When I reported for The News & Observer I wrote  hundreds of stories about North Carolina state government shenanigans.  Here’s how government works sometimes.

* * *

Road graders manufactured by Huber Corp. met specifications and they were the low bid, but the  N.C. Advisory Budget Commission voted 3-2 not to buy them.

Why?

You want the Commission’s reason or the real reason? How about both reasons.

Galion road grader
Galion road grader

The N.C. Department of Transportation already owned 800 road graders made by Galion Iron Works and Manufacturing Co. It didn’t want the Huber machines.  The Galion was a good machine, and those highway boys wanted  more of them.

The Highway Commission proposed splitting the award, half to General Machinery Co., representing Huber, and half to N.C. Equipment  Co., representing Galion, but there were doubts about the legality of splitting the bid — Huber had won fair and square.

So how did the state get out of buying the Hubers when they met specs — Galion didn’t, by the way, not entirely — and Huber’s bid was the lowest?

Easy.

Wasn’t it true that the Galions bought by the state in prior years had not been delivered on time?

Yes, that was true.  And those contracts contained no penalty for late delivery.

Did the current contract contain a penalty for late delivery?

No, it didn’t.

Well, there you go. Isn’t it about time the state began penalizing the winning bidder if it failed to deliver on time?

So that’s how they did it.

The state rejected all bids, put a penalty clause for late delivery in the contract, and rebid it. Nevermind that it was Galion that had failed to deliver on time. 

And, yes, Galion won the rebid.

* * *

OK, here’s one more.

The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles sent a job applicant a form letter pointing out that he had two, five-year-old speeding convictions on his record  and that “may be a negative” factor– some applicants have clean records.

 The tone was, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you,” he told me, and they didn’t.

Three months later another man applied for the same type job at DMV. His driving record included four convictions for speeding; two for reckless driving; two for illegal passing; one for driving on the wrong side of the road; and one safe-movement violation and four driver license suspensions.

He got hired.  His father was a Democratic county commission chairman and he had a recommendation from Gov. James B. Hunt’s Office.

When I asked the commissioner of motor vehicles why the fellow with a lousy driving record got hired while the one with two five-year-old convictions was not hired the commissioner looked at me like I had just arrived in Raleigh on a turnip truck.

This one had a sponsor, he said. That one didn’t.

 Coming Monday:  Dixie Dew