Easley was Governor Nick Danger?

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Tags:

mike easley, local/state

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Depositions given to ABC11 by the John Locke Foundation are just the latest bizarre chapter in the investigation into the doings of former North Carolina Governor Mike Easley.

The documents show Easley used a secret e-mail account with a clandestine address - the name of fictional private investigator Nick Danger spelled backwards.

Sherri Johnson, a former Easley communications director, said the governor had the e-mail account that he used for state business.

The e-mail address, '"kcinregnad," was the reverse of the name of a fictional detective dreamed up by a comedy troupe in the 1960's. The idea apparently had something to do with a learning disability. Easley has been rumored for years to have dyslexia.

Johnson told media attorneys, "The governor wrote backwards. I mean, when he wrote, he wrote backwards."

The John Locke Foundation publishes the Carolina Journal. It's one of several media outlets that are party to a lawsuit filed against the Easley administration after an official in one of the Governor's cabinet departments - Debbie Crane - claimed the Governor's office told public information officers to routinely delete e-mails. She was later fired.

"In open records requests we filed over time we didn't receive private e-mails from Mike Easley," said Rick Henderson with the Carolina Journal.

In her deposition, Cari Boyce, a former communications director for Easley, said the governor was the only state official she knew of that used a private e-mail address to conduct state business.

Easley officials also testified they were instructed to use the phone for sensitive issues rather than e-mail so there would be no record.