A criminal investigation into spending by town of Cary employees is being impeded due to a lack of documentation from the North Carolina State Auditor's Office, Wake County’s top prosecutor says.
Wake District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the auditor's office hasn’t turned over materials supporting a 2,600-page investigative report the auditor’s office released in July following allegations of wasteful spending by former Cary town manager Sean Stegall and the town’s internal controls. Freeman also says the auditor’s office hasn’t given her a timeline on when the materials — including interviews and financial analyses — would be handed over.
Other WRAL Top Stories
"We are proceeding with what we can without that information, but certainly look forward to, and hope that they will soon let us know when we will be getting their report," Freeman said in an interview with WRAL.
The auditor’s report alleged spending policy violations by town employees. Auditors found tens of thousands of dollars' worth of purchases that lacked clear government purpose, the report said. Those purchases included high-cost meals, alcohol expenses, travel costs, and spending tied to retreats and promotional activities, according to the report.
Stegall hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment.
When he released the report, State Auditor Dave Boliek said Stegall enabled a culture of extravagant spending.
Earlier this year, the Wake DA's office and the State Bureau of Investigation joined a probe into the town to determine if any of the alleged financial mismanagement warranted criminal charges. At the time, the state auditor said an initial forensic analysis conducted by his office's investigative division indicated possible criminal activity by the former town manager.
"Our goal is to be as useful as possible in providing information that may support any prosecution of criminal activity," Boliek said in a January statement.
Freeman said she met with the state auditor's office in July, after the Cary investigative report was complete.
"The fact that they have released an audit with several thousand pages of attachments to it but not yet been in a position to share with us the interviews and other things they did underlying that audit certainly just puts us at a disadvantage with being able to move forward with our case," Freeman said.
In response to Freeman's remarks, a spokesperson for the state auditor told WRAL that the auditor’s office has provided Freeman’s office with initial information from the Cary probe, adding that the investigation is ongoing and underscored the importance of accuracy and completeness. The spokesperson said there isn’t a timeline for when the rest of the investigation will be complete.
In the meantime, Freeman said criminal investigators have since started their own interviews.
"For us to be able to move forward with criminal charges and not have to start from scratch on that, it would be helpful to have that information provided to us," Freeman said, adding that the town has cooperated with the investigation.
