Ooooh, possible corruption and intrigue at the county office.
Charlotte, North Carolina television station WSOC TV has had an ongoing investigation into allegations that a Stanly County court official illegally obtained a copy of a certified birth certificate for Kellie Pickler’s little brother Eric Pickler.
The station learned that in June of ’09, Stanly County trial court coordinator Susan Honeycutt applied for a certified copy of a birth certificate for Eric for unclear reasons.
According to UNC School of Government professor Charles Szypszak, “Certified copies are used to prove your identity. You get drivers licenses, passports, things like that, so that’s why they’re restricted.”
The Stanly County Register of Deeds Suzanne Lowder discovered that Honeycutt had applied for the birth certificate and emailed the professor with questions rather than going to the higher ups to question the odd application by a fellow county employee.
The news station obtained emails that said that Honeycutt had applied for the birth certificate for a child support case, stating that she was an authorized agent, attorney or legal rep; however, the Register of Deeds believes that Honeycutt misrepresented herself since there weren’t any cases involving Eric open at that time.
The professor asked Lowder to go to the county attorney and the sheriff due to the fact that obtaining a certified birth certificate by misrepresenting yourself could possibly be a crime, but when Lowder did that, the sheriff called Honeycutt’s boss, Chief District Judge Lisa Thacker, who chose to pursue the incident no further.
Lowder explained to Professor Szypszak in an email that, “The Sheriff and judge are of the opinion that nothing further should be done.”
For weeks, the news program has tried to contact the various people involved to find out why no incident report was filed and why no one will investigate possible misconduct, but no one will get back with them.
Channel 9 does report that Susan Honeycutt later provided the Register of Deeds with a statement that was allegedly signed by Eric’s mom stating that Honeycutt was authorized to obtain the birth certificate, but no explanation as to why Eric’s mom didn’t request the birth certificate herself or how she and Honeycutt know each other.
Such an odd story for an investigative report, but I guess misconduct is misconduct no matter how trivial it is.
Channel 9 also has a video telling of the investigation here if you prefer your investigative reports in video form.
Click here to view the visual story version of this article.
