Grand Jury Wants Perdue Donor Investigated | Eastern NC Now

   Publisher's Note: The author of this report, Rick Henderson, is the managing editor for Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Fulenwider accused of paying salary for convicted campaign aide

    RALEIGH     A Wake County grand jury Monday suggested one of Democratic former Gov. Bev Perdue's donors obstructed justice by violating campaign finance laws. In a presentment (PDF download), the grand jury asked Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby to investigate Charles Michael Fulenwider, a Morganton owner of fast-food restaurants and other concerns, who has been named in other campaign irregularities involving Perdue's re-election efforts.

    The presentment stated that Fulenwider, who had maxed out his donations for Perdue's 2008 re-election campaign, "contributed or loaned" an additional $32,000 to the Perdue campaign committee to compensate a Perdue campaign aide, Julia Leigh (or Juleigh) Sitton of Morganton. The money was funneled through a company operated by Perdue's campaign finance director, Peter Reichard. The contributions were not reported to the State Board of Elections.

    Sitton and Reichard have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of justice charges related to the payment scheme. Each has paid a fine and was sentenced to probation.

    Fulenwider was mentioned in a 2010 investigation of the Perdue campaign by the State Board of Elections as part of an "aircraft provider" program arranged by Reichard and New Bern attorney and veteran political donor Trawick "Buzzy" Stubbs.

    The Perdue committee failed to pay for more than 40 flights taken on private aircraft for political events.

    The aircraft provider scheme was reported in detail initially by Carolina Journal. Stubbs, who was the law partner of Perdue's late first husband, was indicted for obstruction of justice and causing the Perdue campaign committee to file false reports. Stubbs is awaiting trial.

    (To read CJ's full reporting on Perdue's campaign flights, click here.)

The barber's flight

    Fulenwider's company, Fulenwider Enterprises, was invoiced for a flight Perdue took Dec. 8, 2007, to a Manteo fundraiser for then-Senate leader Marc Basnight. The flight was contracted from Profile Aviation in Hickory, where the flight originated. The aircraft picked up Perdue in Chapel Hill, flew her and her party to Manteo, dropped Perdue in Chapel Hill, and returned to Hickory.

    In 2010, Fulenwider told CJ that he knew he had donated the maximum to the campaign, so he asked an acquaintance, Robert Lee Caldwell, to find someone else to pay for the flight. "It was billed to me, but I couldn't pay for the thing because I was over $4,000. I had to find someone else to pay for it, or they would have to pay for it out of campaign funds," Fulenwider said.

    Fulenwider denied paying for the flight in someone else's name, a violation of campaign laws.

    At the time, Caldwell was chairman of the Board of Trustees of Western Piedmont Community College in Morganton. Sitton also had been a trustee of the college.

    Campaign records indicate $3,048.50 was paid to Profile Aviation from James Fleming, then 65, a barber in Morganton. According to a CJ review of state campaign finance records, this was the only campaign contribution Fleming had made in at least 20 years. When asked by a CJ reporter to produce a record of the payment, Fleming could not do so.

    Caldwell was indicted in February 2011 for causing the Perdue campaign to file a false report and obstruction of justice. Caldwell's indictment states that he solicited and accepted a check from Fleming to pay for a chartered aircraft for Perdue. Caldwell then reimbursed Fleming for the check with money that came from an unidentified third party. Caldwell resigned from the community college board. His case has not been scheduled for a hearing.

    A review of the State Board of Elections investigative report shows Fulenwider was involved in at least two other convoluted flights for the Perdue campaign.