Media Report Round-up: Ted Triebel's Drunk Driving Conviction

For those of you with much better things to do - like working and raising a family - than to try and keep up with the criminal dealings of your elected officials - no easy task in North Carolina, here is a round-up of the reporting on Ted Triebel's criminal conviction on DWI:

The News of Orange County - Cudos to The News for being the only media outlet with a quote from the convict himself.

The Durham Herald-Sun - Am I the only person who is uncomfortable with a judge who "almost apologized" for convicting a drunk driver when the evidence is clear that he is guilty? I hope not.

The Daily Tar Heel - The DTH was the only outlet with a quote from one of Ted's fellow board members. Hopefully, Eddie Eubanks is correct and the Board will "meet and talk" openly about the convicted criminal in their ranks.

The Raleigh News & Observer

It's a long and winding road

"And still they lead me back

To the long, winding road

You left me standing here

A long, long time ago

Don't leave me standing here."

- The Beatles, "The long and winding road"

I have been in a Beatles frame of mind lately so the lyrics to "The long and winding road" immediately occurred to me when a long, winding journey finally came to an end on Tuesday afternoon.

Over one year ago, Orange County Board of Education member Ted Triebel was involved in an auto accident in rural Orange County. What few knew at the time was that Ted was charged with DWI at the scene. It was not until over three months later, as his court date drew closer, that his charges became public and he was forced to acknowledge the charges against him.

After repeated delays and postponements that pushed his hearing back for over a year, Ted Triebel has finally joined his former "partner in crime" on the Orange County Board of Education, Dennis Whitling, as an actual convicted criminal.

After testimony from two members of the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Trooper who responded to his accident last November, Ted Triebel was found guilty of DWI on Tuesday afternoon. He was sentenced to 10 days in prison, 24 hours of community service and must pay a community service fee. The prison sentence was suspended to unsupervised probation in return for payment of a fine and court costs.

According to The News of Orange County, Ted emailed his "regret" for the "mistake" he made and said that he has "since moved forward." Good for him, and now that there is no mistaking the fact that they have a convicted criminal in their midst, it is time for the Board to move forward - and remove Ted from office.

Over six months ago, I wrote:

"If he is found guilty of DWI (or pleads guilty to a lesser charge to avoid prosecution for DWI), the Board must move immediately to sanction him and remove him from his seat based on a violation of the Code of Ethics he swore to uphold.

According to the Board's Code of Ethics (Policy 2120):

'Members of the Board may be removed by the remaining members of the Board if sufficient evidence warrants such action. Causes for action
are:

• the member is guilty of immoral or disreputable conduct'

If a conviction for drunk driving in the community you have sworn to serve isn't disreputable, what is?"

The only thing that has changed since then is that we now know for a fact that Ted was drunk when he made the personal choice to get behind the wheel of his car. It is only by blind luck that he was the only person hurt by his choice.

The long and winding road has finally reached its long overdue destination and it is time for the Orange County Board of Education to take a stand for credibility and accountability by expelling the criminal among them.

One more week

Now that May is nearly half over, most spring flowers have come and gone, and the cold and gloom of November is a distant memory for most, the time has nearly come for Orange County Board of Education member Ted Triebel to finally answer his long-delayed drunk driving charges.

Over six months ago, Ted caused an accident in Orange County that both sent him to the hospital and got him charged with Driving While Impaired. According to the State Trooper on the scene, both Ted and his wife admitted he had been drinking before getting behind the wheel and proceeding to endanger the people he was sworn to serve. Luckily, no one else was hurt.

For the first three months, Ted said nothing publicly about the incident. It only came to light when a member of the community noticed his original February court date listed on the North Carolina Court System's online court calendar and decided to spread the word.

It wasn't until asked by the local media to respond to this anonymous tip that Ted decided to acknowledge his pending charges. And even then, he had only a "terse" response for the press that appeared to arrogantly show regret that the State Trooper dared to charge him rather than regret for callously risking the safety of his community.

Not exactly the "openness" or "integrity" he claimed to possess when running for the Board or the "transparency" he frequently professed while seated.

To this day, I can't help but wonder if Ted was hoping the matter would quietly pass unnoticed so that his deception could continue undeterred - maybe that's just my cynicism peeking through. Or, maybe it's just Ted's history of these kinds of intentionally deceptive actions that makes him suspect.

Let's not forget his decision to withhold announcing Dennis Whitling's resignation until after the press left a Board meeting, his suppression of community comment when pushing through plans to reorganize two of the district's elementary schools, and his scheduling of a meeting on the future of those schools at a time when most parents were unable to attend.

With his history assembled in one place like this, it becomes clear that this latest incident is simply par for the course in Ted's World.

The parents of Orange County deserve better from someone tasked with providing leadership for their children's schools. It is a shame that they are being represented by someone most wouldn't trust to babysit their kids.

Ted is scheduled to be in court (again) in Chapel Hill next Tuesday morning. Hopefully, this six-month farce will come to a close and he will be held accountable for his actions.

If he is found guilty of DWI (or pleads guilty to a lesser charge to avoid prosecution for DWI), the Board must move immediately to sanction him and remove him from his seat based on a violation of the Code of Ethics he swore to uphold. According to the Board's Code of Ethics (Policy 2120):

"Members of the Board may be removed by the remaining members of the Board if sufficient evidence warrants such action. Causes for action are:

• the member is guilty of immoral or disreputable conduct"

If a conviction for drunk driving in the community you have sworn to serve isn't disreputable, what is?

The embarrassment "continued"

I am sorry for not writing sooner about what happened with Ted Triebel's drunk driving case earlier this week, but I had a mid-term for my grad school program yesterday. I had hoped the press would cover this, but I guess that was too much to ask.

Until I have a chance to write more, here is an update:

Ted's case was "continued" until May 19th, apparently because the test results were not back from the SBI lab in time for court on Tuesday morning.

So, the embarrassment of having a school board member charged with drunk driving will continue for another three months.

Unless, of course, Ted does the honorable thing and resigns from the Board before he does any more damage to its reputation.

Honesty, Openness, Hard Work, Integrity and (alleged) Drunk Driving

"I value honesty, openness, hard work, and integrity. If elected, I promise to bring those qualities to the School Board."
- Ted Triebel (quoted from his 2006 Board of Education campaign brochure)

Many people know that Orange County Board of Education Member Ted Triebel was in an auto accident this past November. Many also know that he was injured in that accident.

What few - if any - knew before today's Durham Herald-Sun was that Ted was cited by the State Highway Patrol for DWI in that accident.

[Update: WRAL.com posted a notice of Ted's DUI charges on Feb. 12 and The News of Orange County posted a short blurb on Feb. 13. The posting by The News of Orange County says to expect "more information" in Wednesday's edition.}

According to the article, Ted and his wife both admitted that he had been drinking before getting behind the wheel (without his seat belt) and crashing his car.

Below you can see the citation issued as a result of the accident.

On the right side you can clearly see that the responding Trooper marked line 5, stating that there was "probable cause to believe" Ted "did unlawfully and willfully operate a (motor) vehicle on a street or highway while subject to an impairing substance" in violation of NC law - in short, Drunk Driving.

Of course, Ted (like his predecessor as Chairman of the Orange County Board of Education) is innocent until either found guilty or (like Dennis) he admits his crimes. However, I find it hard to believe that a State Trooper would go to the trouble of writing such a citation at a single-vehicle accident unless confident of his "probable cause."

Ted will have his time in court to respond to the charges against him, and according to the North Carolina Court System, that time is 9:00 am on Tuesday, February 24.

Unless Ted is fully exonerated by the District Court, (and I don't mean a plea to a lesser charge) the Board of Education must attempt to salvage some of its credibility by initiating a Full Board Review as outlined in its own Code of Ethics and immediately remove Ted from the Board for what the Code calls "immoral or disreputable conduct."

Hopefully, it will not come to that and Ted will follow Dennis Whitling's example and immediately resign his position for the good of the Board and Orange County Schools.

Drip, drip, drip

Just when I had completely given up on our area's main media outlets, one steps in a gives me a glimmer of hope that we in Orange County are not the forgotten ones.

The Raleigh News & Observer, the paper of record for the Triangle, has finally noticed than an elected politician in its coverage area was recently convicted of a felony committed while in office. Of course, it took them nearly THREE WEEKS to notice.

From today's N&O website:

"Former Orange County school board member Dennis Whitling was sentenced to two years probation after pleading guilty to embezzlement and other charges earlier this month, according to court records."

"The alleged incidents occurred between December 2005 and September 2007. The law firm reported them in November."

Help me remember, what else Dennis was doing prior to September 2007?

Oh yeah, now I remember. He was looking down his nose at us unenlightened "racists," "bigots," and "elitists" as we fought to have a voice in our children's education, and to keep him and his accomplices from destroying the only school our children had ever known.

Last August, I wrote a column titled "Dennis Whitling was right" that ended with, "But, the meetings won't be for nothing - a new month means another $100 for Dennis. Cha ching!"

Since then I have been told that Dennis never accepted payment for being on the Board. In light of the current situation, I guess we know why. When you are stealing almost $5,000 a month from your employer, a $100 check from the county isn't even worth the bookkeeping hassle.

My how things can change in a year.

Faith restored

Just when I was beginning to think that no one was paying attention, late this week my faith was restored.

When Dennis Whitling was initially accused of embezzlement from his employer of 23 years, the local media was quick to report the story. When Ted Triebel pulled out a late-meeting surprise and announced that Dennis had resigned from the Board in disgrace, it was quickly covered by the local media.

But, when it was made public last month that Dennis had surrendered his law license and agreed to be disbarred in what appeared to be a preliminary step toward a plea agreement, only the Durham Herald-Sun reported the story.

When the second shoe dropped earlier this month, and the NC Department of Corrections released information that Dennis had be convicted of felony embezzlement on August 7th, I anxiously waited to see what additional details the media would report. The silence was deafening.

Nothing in the Durham Herald-Sun; nothing in the Raleigh News and Observer; nothing on WRAL. That was until this week.

This Wednesday, The News of Orange County finally published a story on Dennis's conviction - nearly two weeks after the fact, and nine days after I first reported it here. I guess better late than never.

Now that it is finally hit the press, other sites have decided to discuss the issue.

In what is her second posting on Dennis's travails [I still love her opening comment from last January: "Does anyone know this Dennis Whitling fellow?"], Ruby Sinreich of OrangePolitics.org has taken notice of the development and is publicizing it outside the shrinking world of News of Orange County subscribers.

Ruby closes her post with, "Good thing he was only on the School Board for 3 years."

Looking back on the past year and a half, I have to say - Too bad he was ever on the School Board at all.