#NCSEN: Court ruling makes Rep. Brawley’s monopoly accusation against Tillis stick
State Rep. Robert Brawley (R-Iredell) made headlines back in May thanks to a confrontation with Speaker Thom Tillis. That confrontation resulted in Brawley losing his committee chairmanship. (It’s unclear — as of this writing — as to whether Brawley resigned willfully or was forced out of the position by Tillis.)
One of Brawley’s complaints against Tillis was that leadership pushed a bill through the House giving a monopoly to the family business of a certain Republican legislator. That legislator turned out to be Rep. Justin Burr who has family in the bail bonds business. (According to Thom Tillis’ Senate campaign web site, Burr is part of the Tillis campaign team.)
Well, The North Carolina Court of Appeals has sounded off on the whole issue of whether the state legislature granted a monopoly in this matter:
A North Carolina appeals court says a state law created an unconstitutional monopoly by allowing only one trade group to train bail bond agents.
The unanimous ruling Tuesday by a state Court of Appeals panel supports a Wake County judge, who last year blocked the law from being carried out. The North Carolina Bail Agents Association and a new rival called the North Carolina Bail Academy had been competing to provide the required training until legislators passed the law recognizing only the association.
Republican Rep. Robert Brawley of Iredell County this year criticized the law, saying it benefited the family of state Rep. Justin Burr. The Stanly County Republican is a bail bondsman whose father is president of the nonprofit association. Justin Burr excused himself from voting on the law.
Brawley is a solid conservative. I wonder if he wants to run for Speaker himself? He would be a good one.
As to Justin Burr, he is a twit, and a now defunct Carolinas political website once dubbed him ”Little Prince Chucklehead”. Although, he is not related to Senator Richard ”Tricky Dick” Burr, I am sure that name confusion is probably the main thing that gets him elected.
By the way, the comments on Robert Brawley are solid. Yes he would make a good speaker. In all the folks ensnared or associated in the periphery of this scandal, Brawley is the only one I can say is honest and earnest.
And you see what happens to somebody who bucks the party and tells the truth…He was attacked, his mental capacity challenged, bullied, etc. In the end, he is the only MAN standing. The rest are cardboard cutouts who were bought and paid for.
Thank you Rep. Brawley for standing on principle and speaking the truth, even when it’s your party! How can we expect better government, if the new guys are just as corrupt and duplicitous as the last regime. Call me naive, but I’m not giving up on the idea that we CAN and MUST have principled leaders who will work to restore our Constitutional republic, not just show up to cash in and maintain the status quo.
Looks like Tholl Road Thom still has some baggage to claim. Looks like Robert Brawley is not the loose cannon as he was portrayed to be.
Haymaker readers, attention! This ‘little case’ of monopoly is so rotten you can smell it for miles. It has all the elements of a Meg Scott Phipps/Jim Black/LaRoque scandal…it just hasn’t had its day in court yet. I predict you will see high ranking politicos losing immunity and having to testify under oath to a wide spread pattern of corruption. I further predict felony indictments and probably some jail time for some.
So far there has been a monumental attempt to bully, outspend, and out maneuver the the plaintiffs, who have stood their ground. Whilst the General assembly and its operatives get a black eye in newspapers across the land.
Who are the players? Apodaca, bondsman and part owner of Accredited Insurance, who has stacked the board of the defendant nonprofit and is the recipient of thousands of dollars. Justin Burr, bondsman whose father is the president of defendant and he himself ‘pardoned’ of documented campaign finance violations by Kim Strach, wife of Phil Strach, defendant attorney.
Wayne Goodwin, commissioner of insurance and victim of Apodaca’s ‘angriness’. Phil Strach, high level political operative in hopes of influencing the judicial process by way of judges he helped place. Jerry Dockham, now departed from the General Assembly, to be dragged back to detail the dirty deed. Thom Thillis who watched with careful eye the whole deed which has now been declared unconstitutional and illegal. Phil Berger, pres of the senate, who had to have knowledge. Jeff Collins, who fell on the sword and lied when asked to. John Blust who was apparently recruited to stand on the grassy knoll, but then couldn’t keep his mouth shut when presented with a soundbite opportunity.
And many others. This seemingly innocuous case is the kind that wrecks careers and come out of nowhere to surprise everyone.
This may be a prelude to some other upcoming court challenges the General Assembly members have to now justify.
Stay tuned.
Thanks for this. It’s worth noting that Jim Black had something to do with getting Tillis elected to the GA in the first place. I wish I could remember the exact source of this, but believe it was in a post on Carolina Plotthound yesterday.
Note to Franklin County………whatever you think of Glen Bradley, he was never a water carrier for the establishment when he represented you. And with your population and partisan voter index trending Republican even as Nash County is going the other way, you don’t have to put up with Collins or anyone else out of Nash. Think strongly about fielding a primary candidate by February.
Excellent analysis, and true too. Burr was getting such favors in 2011 too. He had a couple votes that he abstained from due to conflict of interest in 2011 which are directly on point with this one. This rabbit hole keeps on going if you look deeper.
What was Jeff Collins role?
Collins agreed to add an amendment to one of his bills to simply repeal SB738 (the ‘last minute bail education monopoly bill”). Brawley went to Collins and Collins ok’d it. It would have been a legislative fix that saved lots of face for those knee deep in the original sleaze, and saved tens of thousands of legal dollars. In fact the owner of the school who would be put out of business was in Collin’s district. How’s that for constituent services? The amendment passed 118-1 and then 119-0. Then higher ups who control the puppets like Collins told him to get rid of the amendment. They asked. He jumped. He lied flat out a number of times about it. He chose to put a constituent out of business over party line orders. Collins displayed a juvenile presentation in a later committee which voted to strip off the amendment. Justin Burr whispered to Craig Horn to raise a legal issue, and of course Horn did so, and ultimately the sparse vote stripped the amendment. Audio of the committee meeting and Collins stupid ass comments is in safe keeping for later playback. Even GOP Phil Strach was there like a character in the Godfather making his presence known to any Repubs that he was watching. Strach is now the atty for the folks Apodaca and Apodaca’s group and Burrs group that passed the sleeze in the first place and have pushed it in court.
As stated before, there are paper trails, audio, and other evidence that point to a RICO-esque conspiracy to self deal. The paper is full off stories about politicians not properly covering their trail, and thinking they are untouchable. Our newest state resident Jesse Jr in Federal Prison in Butner is proof.
Thillis and Co and Apodaca and Co have been skating on thin ice and need to master corruption on a state level before playing in the big leagues.
Interesting note, Collins didn’t even have to resort to theatrics and lies, the powers that be ‘carefully handled’ his bill and removed the amendment anyway in spite of the unanimous vote BEFORE the bill went to committee. It was so screwed up and in violation of normal procedure, that when it did make it to the floor of the Senate, its pedigree had such flaws, there had to be quick special meetings to get it legal to proceed, around several desks of course, not in any public or committee meeting.
So the GOP goons not only ignore the will of the people, they ignore bona fide unanimous votes if things don’t suit them.
I’m ashamed to be a Republican.
Typical Tillis…looking out for himself and his cronies but not for you and me.