Will Whistle Blower Randy Rogers be Jailed?

Will Whistle Blower Randy Rogers be Jailed?

Vice Chairman Gary A. House

Harnett County Board of Commissioners

I have carefully reviewed a letter dated August 25, 2014 from Attorney David Senter from the law firm of Nexen Pruet to Attorney Coy Brewer, Jr. who represents Randy Rogers in a civil lawsuit brought on by Harnett County against the advice of both Harnett County’s internal and external attorneys.

The letter states that Mr. Rogers turned over 1500 pages of documents on or about June 17, 2014 to Senter’s office.  Senter claims that no original documents were returned.  To my knowledge, Mr. Rogers had no original documents.  I seriously doubt all 1500 pages came from Harnett County Public Utilities files.  Mr. Rogers obtained documents from the internet.  He also visited other governmental agencies that freely gave him access to public files and let him make copies.  I know this for a fact because on occasion I accompanied him.

I have never known Mr. Rogers to possess any records that were not public records. 

The letter itemizes 51 items that Senter alleges that Mr. Rogers has in his possession that have not been returned.  Many of those items never existed, are on Harnett County’s server, or are on record at the Register of Deeds.

According to Mr. Rogers, this is the third time that Senter has threatened him with incarceration for contempt of court.  I do believe that there should be incarcerations but Mr. Rogers is not one of the one’s who should be jailed.   Harnett County has not heard both sides of the story nor does it want to.  It has let a few rogue employees dictate spending over ½ million dollars in order to make an example out Mr. Rogers, a whistle blower.   I talked with two commissioners yesterday that did not even know that Harnett County was still paying Senter for his legal services.  The County Board has not been updated in many months.  Who is directing the attorney and what are their motives—to protect themselves perhaps?

Several of the items in the list of unreturned items were addressed by me in my deposition last year.  Mr. Rogers saw some of those public records such as the Country Walk Investigation at my office.  He did not possess them.  Still the County wants him to return a public document that is in my possession that I obtained from our staff attorney.  She told me the investigation was a public document except for the attorney’s opinion in the front.  I showed Mr. Rogers the investigation minus the attorney’s opinion so he could help me clarify some questions.  Of course, now, the County is claiming the whole investigation was attorney client privileged and not public.

I did take the County Walk Investigation notebook to the County Manager Scott Sauer and asked what we were going to do for these people.  He told me “if they asked for it, we would have to give it to them because it was public record but if we did not tell them it existed, they would not know to ask for it.”

I had the County Attorney and County Manager both tell me it was public record.  When this lawsuit came about, it went from being a public record to a non-public record because it helped the County manipulate the process.  Evidently, Senter was not listening in my deposition in the Country Walk issue.  I clearly stated that Mr. Rogers reviewed my copy of the public document in my office with me.

In my capacity as a Commissioner, which I have always taken very seriously, I worked closely with Mr. Rogers.  Frankly, I never reviewed or saw many of the 51 items that the County wants returned.  Mr. Rogers worked diligently to prove that corruption existed in Harnett County.  He would have shown me any information that proved his allegations.  He showed me more than enough for me to give him immense credibility.  I also verified information with other employees and other governmental agencies. 

Mr. Rogers never showed up at my office with a tractor trailer full of documents that apparently the County pretends to believe he has in his possession.

Back in 2013, Senter tried to settle the case with making numerous, one-sided demands.  Rogers would basically have to withdraw all public records requests.  He could not speak on the issue ever again unless compelled by law.  He had to acknowledge that public utilities had been cleared of any wrongdoing.  He could not make public records requests in the future for past events.  He would have to accept responsibility and acknowledge wrongful conduct among a host of other demands.

As you can see, Senter was trying to place a gag order on Mr. Rogers.  The only reason that a gag order would be imposed would be because the defendant/whistle blower had information that would be detrimental to the County.  They have to keep Rogers quiet to protect those in the wrong.

As far as acknowledging that public utilities had been cleared of any wrongdoing, that has not been done to this date even though some in the County my claim that it has.  As a matter of fact, I was defendant in this lawsuit as well.  I settled with the County of an intense six months of negotiations in November of 2013.  One item that I demanded in my settlement was for the County to hire an outside investigator to examine the contracts, policies and procedures of Harnett County Public Utilities.  Has that been done?  Absolutely not.  The County is in violation of its settlement with me.  Even Commissioner Jim Burgin has told me in the past that if anyone ever looked at public utilities that they would find improprieties.  Commissioner Beatrice Hill has told me the same thing.

Fact is no one has investigated Mr. Rogers’ allegations that did not have motives to conceal. 

Mr. Rogers is correct in his assertions.  I have no doubt.

It is a sad day when the attorney for a local government threatens to persuade a judge to jail an innocent man, a whistle blower who had the best intentions of Harnett County at heart.