Legislative Leaders Announce Committee To Investigate Roy Cooper’s Secret ‘Reentry’ Settlement List
Today, Republican leadership in the North Carolina General Assembly announced the formation of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations: Subcommittee on Prisons. The subcommittee will investigate former Governor Cooper’s decision to release over 4,2000 criminals early through a settlement with his key political allies, the ACLU and NAACP.
Notably, the individuals on this list were kept secret until the General Assembly’s Gov Ops Committee obtained a copy and began to release it
“Roy Cooper opened the floodgates and then did the bare minimum to inform the public about the criminals being released into their communities,” said Senate Leader Phil Berger. “He made every effort to hide what he did, and Republicans in the General Assembly are going to hold him and Gov. Stein accountable for releasing violent, repeat offenders and endangering our citizens.”
According to the release, “the subcommittee will investigate the Cooper administration’s early prisoner releases and the conditions of their release and parole. The subcommittee will also dive into Gov. Josh Stein’s involvement since the N.C. Department of Justice, when he was attorney general, represented Cooper in the lawsuit and subsequent settlement.” N.C. Sen. Buck Newton (R-Wilson) and N.C. Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) will co-chair the subcommittee.
N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall said, “Public safety is the most important responsibility of our government. If Roy Cooper or any other official failed at this most basic responsibility, the people of this state deserve to know about it. The release of violent, repeat offenders back onto our streets is a serious miscarriage of justice. This committee will investigate exactly how these early release decisions were made, who was responsible, and whether proper safeguards were followed.”
Impact of North Carolina Senate Race
Republican Michael Whatley has highlighted Cooper’s decision to collude with his liberal allies to release thousands of criminals as prime example of Cooper’s soft-on-crime agenda in action. Notably, DeCarlos Brown Jr. who is now facing murder charges over the killing of Iryna Zarutska, was on the settlement list. Despite being on the list to show compliance with the settlement agreement, Democrat Governor Stein’s administration asserts that the settlement had nothing do with Brown’s release.
As the Blue Ridge Times previously reported , at the time the Cooper administration declined to share details about the settlement and got caught lying about the release of violent offenders. The stonewall continued until news broke about Brown’s connection to the settlement.
The committee can issue subpoenas to investigate the truth, and Republican legislators can make it crystal clear that compliance with legislative oversight requests is imperative for the departments budget request considerations. If the department of prisons cannot be honest with the General Assembly, why should they receive additional funding?
