There is an old saying “Fact is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense.” The facts I am about to relay to you don’t make any sense, but you will find out soon enough what has happened and why I believe every bit of what I have been told about how our Commissioners, State Representative and Speaker of the House Tim Moore and State Senator Warren Daniel have abused every bit of their power, committed illegal acts and have thrown away all ethics that elected officials are supposed to display. Over pretty close to nothing that was blown up like an atomic bomb.
First, some information. The Cleveland County Commissioners, County Manager, Asst. County Manager and their spouses took a taxpayer paid trip to Washington, DC last week. I have requested through the Freedom of Information Act and NC Public Records Laws copies of the justification for those trips as well expense reports. It will be interesting to see if the taxpayers also paid for the spouses expenses. I received notification that County Policy is that it takes 7-10 business days to provide those documents. I then asked for such a policy. I have gotten into the habit of asking for all the details because if you don’t, they will not provide them.
Tim Moore is the County Attorney working directly for the Commissioners. Tim Moore is Commissioner Jason Falls First Cousin, once removed. Tim is my NC State Representative for Cleveland County and also the NC Speaker of the House, which is a powerful position statewide.
If you remember, the former County Attorney Bob Yelton was fired by the Commissioners under suspicious circumstances to make an opening in the position of County Attorney so Tim Moore could be hired. Mr. Yelton provided me with a letter he wrote to the Commissioners that I published, which brought on much controversy as Newspapers in Charlotte and Raleigh as well as major TV news picked up on the story. Scroll back for my article that included Mr. Yelton’s letter. Commissioner Eddie Holbrook stated that Tim Moore was hired as County Attorney in order for Cleveland County to have a straight connection to Raleigh for economic development purposes. I personally heard Commissioner Holbrook say that.
Senator Warren Daniel is our NC Senator representing Cleveland and Burke Counties. Senator Daniel is an attorney and lives in Morganton. Senator Daniel works with Speaker Tim Moore on every bill that the General Assembly works on and it is very likely that Senator Daniel and Speaker Moore often do each other favors.
Next, the Cleveland County Coroner is an elected office and in the 2014 Election it was highly contested with primaries and runoffs required. Robbie Morgan won the General Election and was sworn in to the four year term as Cleveland County Coroner.
The Office of Cleveland County Coroner does not generate much news but it is a very important position as the Coroner is the only County Official that can serve as Sheriff, can arrest the Sheriff, serve legal papers on the Sheriff as well as provide the first determination that a crime has possibly been committed when a dead body is found. Also note that a previous Coroner, Dwight Tesseneer, once had to take over as Sheriff for a period of time while Sheriff Raymond Hamrick was incapacitated and the department was in turmoil. And, let’s face this fact, as many problems as Cleveland County has in prosecuting crimes, including murder, the DA certainly does not need mistakes made on Death Certificates and such. Robbie Morgan has done a fine job in this office as he has the education and training for this job and is very detail oriented in all phases of this position.
