SBI asked to review voting allegations

The Raleigh News and Observer ^ | October 10, 2006 | Andrea Weigl

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RALEIGH - Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby said Monday he has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into allegations that the husband of a state Supreme Court candidate began voting in North Carolina before his felony probation in Georgia ended.

State Board of Elections officials asked Willoughby to investigate the voting record of Connie Mack Berry Jr., the husband of Rachel Lea Hunter. Hunter, a Durham lawyer who lives in Cary, is running for the state Supreme Court against sitting justice Mark Martin. If Berry voted or registered to vote before his probation ended, he could face a felony charge.

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Berry, 68, was convicted of swindling customers of his jewelry business in Cobb County, Ga., out of $285,000, according to articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 1997, Berry was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution during 7 1/2 years of probation. Berry was accused of taking gold and silver he never paid for. Berry was already in prison on charges related to a money order scam in Muscogee County, Ga., and replacing a diamond on a customer's ring with a fake stone, according to news accounts.

Berry said he is innocent and that the charges were politically motivated. Berry said he pleaded no contest to the charges because he had health problems and his wife and sister had recently died.

Under North Carolina law, a person convicted of a felony in another state cannot vote here until his probation has ended in the other state, said Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections. Bartlett said it is a felony to give false information on a voter registration application. Anyone who registers to vote in North Carolina has to swear that if they have been convicted of a felony, their rights of citizenship have been restored.

Some confusion exists about when Berry's probation ended on those charges, and therefore when he was able to vote again.

Yolanda Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said Berry's probation related to the Cobb County charges ended in April, but his probation on the Muscogee County charges does not end until Nov. 19.

On Sept. 22, Berry's probation officer, Janice Duncan, wrote a letter to Marshall Tutor, an investigator with the State Board of Elections. Duncan's letter lists two case numbers, without identifying the county of conviction, and states, "the listed cases were closed on April 28, 2006 in Cobb County, Georgia and the defendant has no further obligation to the court in these cases."

Berry has given varying statements about when his probation ended, and his account of when he first voted here conflicts with voting records.

Wake County voting records show Berry registered to vote on June 7, 2004, and has voted since that fall's general election, which was the first time his wife ran for the state Supreme Court.

Initially, Berry declined to discuss when his probation ended, saying, "You're trying to get me to say something to incriminate myself."

Then Berry wrote in an Oct. 3 e-mail to The News & Observer that he had a court order showing his probation ended a year ago. He said Georgia officials had screwed up the paperwork.

On Friday, Berry wrote in another e-mail that the Muscogee County sentence was to be concurrent to the Cobb County sentence. Berry wrote that he did not vote until after he received an order from Cobb County officials showing it was OK.

"I did not vote until May of this year .... when I receive the order from Cobb that I was clear," Berry wrote.

When asked Monday about why voting records differ from his account, Berry wrote in an e-mail that he has an explanation and plans to speak at a press conference Thursday.

Staff writer Andrea Weigl can be reached at 829-4848 or aweigl@newsobserver.com.