News-Record.com

Sen. Stan Bingham filed S 351: No Felon as Sheriff earlier this month, and I've had it rattling around on my to-do list for a while. (Dome posted on it here.)

Currently, a sheriff can't hire someone as a deputy who has been convicted of a felony. But, as long as someone has had their voting rights restored, a convicted felon can run to be sheriff.

Bingham's bill would put a constitutional amendment before voters. If enacted, it would add the following to the qualifications for sheriff:

No person is eligible to serve as Sheriff if that person has been adjudged guilty of any felony against this State or the United States, or of a felony in another state that also would be a felony if it had been committed in this State, whether or not that person has been restored to the rights of citizenship in the manner prescribed by law.

(Click here to listen to Bingham and I talk about his bill.)

Who might this apply to? Well, Bingham is from Davidson County and there have been rumors - See this discussion on the Lexington Dispatch's forums page - that former Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege might give it a go in 2010.

Hege, for those of you who don't remember, was once dubbed "America's toughest sheriff," but ended up pleading guilty to two felonies in 2004. From a News & Record story in 2007 when Hege finished his probation:

The probation stemmed from his guilty plea in May 2004 to two felony counts of obstruction of justice for attempts to cover up money missing from the vice and narcotics unit of the sheriff's department. He resigned from the office he had held since being elected in 1994.

During Hege's first year of probation, he was under house arrest with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and was allowed to leave his home only for work, said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Corrections.

[snip]

Hege also paid $7,900 in court-ordered fees and restitution, Acree said. Hege completed 50 hours of community service working in the kitchen of the Salvation Army in Lexington.

Hege's guilty plea in 2004 ended a nine-year tenure as sheriff marked by his eccentric tactics: pink jail cells, paramilitary garb and media grandstanding. Hege generated national - and even international - attention for some of his techniques.

The criminal case against Hege stemmed from a State Bureau of Investigation probe that involved testimony from 28 of his own employees, including two top supervisors.

There were allegations Hege ordered prisoner abuse, promoted racial profiling, recklessly drove his sheriff's car and misused county personnel and equipment. But it was Hege's attempts to cover up money missing from the department's vice and narcotics unit that sealed his fate.

As a convicted felon, Hege couldn't carry a firearm, but he could hold the office.

Bingham said that he was contacted by several Piedmont area sherrif's asking him to run the bill. When asked if it was in direct response to the possibility Hege will run again, Bingham said, "Of course it is, Hege and others. He's not the only one."

Bingham said he expected Hege to run in 2010 but said the prospects for getting his bill through the General Assembly weren't good. That's because amendments to the state's constitution are scrutinized closely by members who are reticent about changing the state's foundational document.

So, was Bingham concerned about a Hege run in 2010?

"Absolutely he'll run again, but I don't think he'll get elected," Bingham said. "But there's no doubt about it, he's going to run."

Click here to listen to Bingham and I talk about his bill.