Posted on 08/29/2009 10:01:09 AM PDT by MitchellC
TABOR CITY - A handful of young men chase R.C. Soles Jr. all over town.
If he's eating breakfast downtown at Mama's Restaurant, the teens and 20-somethings - former clients of the lawyer and state senator - will often wait on the sidewalk for him to exit.
They've camped out by his car to wait for him to leave church on Sunday mornings, and they often park in the cemetery at the end of his road so they can see when he heads home.
If he ignores them, the young men yell and cause a scene. When he leaves, they follow him like he's leading a parade.
Soles has acknowledged giving some of the men thousands of dollars. Many people around town assume they are hounding him for more, flocking to the 74-year-old, never-married lawmaker like sea gulls to bread.
Soles, a member of the General Assembly since before any of these former clients were born, built his reputation in Raleigh as an effective politician who avoids the spotlight.
The longest-serving lawmaker in the state, he's known for supporting legislation that helps his home district, a poor pocket of southeastern North Carolina.
"He doesn't play to the public. But he does play to the people in his home county, and he's in with the inner circle - you know, the power circle - in the legislature," said Zeb Alley, a longtime lobbyist and former state senator who has known Soles since 1971.
But that reputation as a legislative powerhouse has been overshadowed recently by Soles' relationship with his former clients.
On Sunday, authorities say, Soles shot one of two young men who were trying to kick in the door of his home. Kyle Blackburn and B.J. Wright, both former clients who have served jail time, were allegedly trespassing at Soles' estate when he shot Blackburn in the leg.
District Attorney Rex Gore said a report by the State Bureau of Investigation on the shooting may be complete next week.
The shooting is the latest in a string of strange occurrences involving Soles and his former clients. A stack of police reports shows that in the past two years, young men have repeatedly trespassed at Soles' home and offices.
Blackburn was accused last year of trying to break into the senator's house.
On other occasions, Soles has used pepper spray and a shoe to fend off young men.
In a television interview taped last year but aired this month, Stacy Scott accused Soles of molesting him when he was 15. Scott recanted the story soon after it aired, saying he was high on drugs during the interview. Soles has publicly denied a sexual relationship with any of the young men. The SBI was already investigating the allegations made by Scott when the shooting occurred.
The wrong crowd?
Some people around town say Soles' generosity has him mixed up with the wrong crowd; others say Soles is just as much to blame.
Richard Wright, like Soles, is a lawyer in Tabor City. In the 1970s and '80s, he publicly feuded with Soles while they both served in the General Assembly.
Wright said people have been talking about Soles and his relationship with his young clients for years.
One evening this spring, Wright said, he was taking a walk downtown with a friend when they heard a commotion. It was yelling coming from in front of Soles' law office, he said. Wright said Soles threatened to call the police if some young men who were asking him for money didn't leave. They dared him, threatening to call The News & Observer newspaper if Soles had them arrested.
Soles' situation at home has now bubbled up into the media spotlight but it's been unusual for a long time, Wright said.
"What other lawyer in the state has an entourage of teenage boys following him around?" Wright asked. "I think any reasonable person would view something not quite right about it."
One of Soles' clients is 17-year-old Allen Strickland, known in Tabor City as Frog.
Soles has acknowledged giving him money to build a house and for food and clothing.
Last month, Strickland's recently finished house was set on fire. Strickland said after the fire that people were jealous of how he gets his money. This week, he was charged with burning his own house.
Soles, who has declined interviews since Sunday's shooting, told a television station he gave Strickland money in exchange for Strickland's promise to stay in school.
In May, Strickland told police he had been assaulted by Soles. He said Soles "attempted to touch him," according to a police report.
Strickland told police he pushed Soles away and Soles then sprayed him with pepper spray.
According to the police report, Strickland asked to take back his statement three hours later so it wouldn't appear in a newspaper.
Soles has said Strickland threw a helmet at him before he sprayed Strickland.
Strickland is one of five people who have been accused of trespassing on Soles' property since the start of last year.
After the trespassing charge last summer, Strickland was charged with extortion for threatening to reveal information that would ruin Soles' career. The extortion charge was later dropped.
In a television interview earlier this month before the shooting, Soles said his former clients sometimes act irrationally because they drink and "self-medicate."
He said he doesn't hold a grudge and that any allegations against him are simply false.
"If I were doing something wrong or disrespectful, I wouldn't be getting the big vote I get out of my home county every time," said Soles, who has won 21 elections. "You can't go before the public 21 times without the public pretty well knowing about you."
Strickland and his uncle, Jerry Dwayne Stanley, also were charged last year with arson. The house they are accused of burning belonged to the father of Soles' law partner at the time, Bill Phipps.
Phipps, who left Soles' firm at the beginning of this year after 30 years as his law partner, said he has high esteem for the senator.
"R.C. is sometimes too good for his own good," Phipps said. "I think his intentions are good. Maybe some of his flaw is he can't judge character well."
Phipps said he thinks the young men who cling to Soles are using him for his money. Soles has had a Midas touch when it comes to investments, Phipps said, so he can afford to help other people financially. Soles has made sizable donations to his church, and Phipps said he's known Soles to pay at least one person's funeral expenses.
Soles' estate - which he calls Branchwater - is at the end of a driveway nearly a half-mile long. Pines make the lake-front house hard to see from the road. At the end of the driveway, a 4-foot-tall iron gate controlled by a keypad keeps cars from approaching the house. But some of the teens have been known to hop the fence to get to Soles' door.
Phipps' sister, Kay Phipps Small, lives in the same affluent neighborhood as Soles near Lake Tabor. She doesn't think as highly of the senator as her brother.
The men who stalk the area have made her and her neighbors afraid to go out at night, Small said.
A truck speeding down to Soles' driveway nearly ran her off the road recently.
"He is endangering us," Small said. "We live on the rough side of town now."
'A bunch of lies'
John McCumbee lives in a single-wide mobile home with a mattress on the living room floor and a small enclosed porch.
The 31-year-old said he has known Soles for more than 20 years. McCumbee said he's responsible for feeding the senator's four dogs.
Soles has been his lawyer, and McCumbee has had to ask him for money when selling pine straw didn't pay the bills. Soles has never turned him down when he needed money for food, clothes or electricity, he said.
Sitting on his metal porch swing drinking ice water from a Pace Chunky Salsa jar, McCumbee, who considers himself friends with most of the others known to hang around Soles, discounts any accusations about Soles.
"It's a bunch of lies, man, a bunch of lies," McCumbee said. "They need to shut up about R.C. He ain't that way. He's just good-hearted."
Soles has plenty of support in his hometown. Here and in Raleigh, he's known as a man who gets things done for his district, for business and for the Democratic leadership.
In the Senate, Soles is chairman of the Commerce Committee, which handles legislation targeted at the business community. In prior years, Soles has led the judiciary, rules and finance committees.
The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research surveys lawmakers, lobbyists and the news media every two years to rank lawmakers' performance. It has listed Soles among the top 10 senators since 1997. He was ranked eighth in the most recent survey from 2007.
"He has a reputation of being able to deliver. I call him the Senate's 'Mr. Fixit,' " said Brad Crone, a longtime Democratic consultant. "He's able to get in there and advocate for his constituents and has done it very well."
Among the projects he has brought to his constituents are the N.C. Museum of Forestry in Whiteville; a $94.2 million, 1,000-cell prison outside Tabor City; and a state visitors center.
In 2005, the Senate passed a resolution that did two things: Honored Soles' parents - Robert Soles Sr. and Myrtle Soles - on their 75th wedding anniversary and declared "Senator Robert C. 'R.C.' Soles Jr. to be a North Carolina Institution."
Outside the town's post office on Wednesday, several people said they feel bad for Soles.
Inside the Todd House, a buffet restaurant near Soles' law office, Haywood Fowler praised Soles for the numerous opportunities he has brought to Tabor City, including the 500 jobs that came with the prison.
Fowler said he doesn't know anything about Soles' personal life and he doesn't need to.
"R.C. Soles has done more for this town in the state Senate than any other person in the legislature," Fowler said.
It's a line of thinking that many of Soles' supporters use. But others - including Nelwyn Inman - say ignoring Soles' personal dealings with teenagers because he brings home the bacon for Tabor City is tantamount to taking hush money.
"What are those people ultimately saying? That we won't look after these minors because it's worth it so we can get the state money? I hope that's not what's being said, but that's how it sounds sometimes listening to it," Inman said. "What if these were girls? How would everybody look at that?"
Inman has a view of the post office from her window. She has seen numerous confrontations between Soles and men who appear to be in their late teens or early 20s. And she was walking with Wright on the night of the confrontation outside Soles' office earlier this year, when the shouts were what she called "a scary kind of angry, where you really think somebody's going to get hurt."
Doris Strickland, a candidate for the Tabor City Town Council, said she wasn't surprised when she heard about the shooting last week. She is in the camp that believes Soles' financial donations to young men constitute more than generosity.
It's enough to make anyone suspicious, she said. Doris Strickland has her fingers crossed that the latest incident will be the one that leads investigators to find answers.
"There's too many people that's being put at risk in this thing," she said.
What the hell is this all about? It looks like a Ray Bradbury short story...
Sept 25, 2008
WWAY has been on Senator RC Soles sore bottom since they were first handed a report regarding Sen. Soles beating a kid off with his shoe and then attempting to run him over. The police did not charge Sen. Soles but instead charged a 16 year old boy with stealing a light bulb from the Senator and later charged the kid with blackmailing the Senator. The boy, a 16 year old kid with some troubles that the good senator helped to deal with, told the senator that he would go to the news with stories that would ruin the senator's career. The Senator had the kid, Allen Strickland, arrested and the kid said, "see you in prison" So apparently the kid is talking about first hand knowledge of criminal behavior committed by the Senator and not just juicy porno tapes or pictures incriminating the Senator in some gay sex act.
Betty Fennell, retired investigative reporter and the senator's opponent, went to a campaign breakfast the senator held in Pender County yesterday to ask him in front of the media if the senator can confirm or deny whether or not the senator is under a federal grand jury investigation and whether or not he told Senator Mark Basnight he would be under indictment after the election. Senator Soles didn't not confirm or deny, he did counter accuse Fennell of contacting the 16 yr old Strickland and offering him money for information. A charge Fennell flat out denied.
The guy (unmarried, 74-year old man who is followed by young men) obviously is a homosexual. Who elects these perverts, anyway?
Maybe the folks in that COunty ae just open minded and keep to their own business.
THat or the guy is rich....
“The guy (unmarried, 74-year old man who is followed by young men) obviously is a homosexual. Who elects these perverts, anyway?”
Yeah...he got them al wee-weed up, alright...
They never did name his political party (no surprise, there). One has to infer it from other snippets within the article.
In this case, the first mention of any political party was in here at paragraph #48. Buried deep. Way deep, for obvious reasons. At the state level North Carolina is a Democrook state, run by Democrooks, for Democrooks.
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