melanie goodwin

RALEIGH ― The scandal that led to the resignation and eventual imprisonment of former House Speaker Jim Black has resulted in a new law that requires elected officials to shine some sunlight on their legal defense funds.

Legislation passed by the General Assembly in the waning days of the 2007 session, and signed into law by Gov. Mike Easley, requires legal defense fund treasurers to make quarterly reports to the State Board of Elections, much like reports have to be made detailing campaign contributions.

Chris Fitzsimon, director of N.C. Policy Watch, a liberal policy organization based in Raleigh, said the such contributions should be open to the public for the same reason campaign contributions are a public record.

"People donating to legal defense funds have the same opportunity for access and influence as cam-paigns," Fitzsimon said.

John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative, Raleigh-based policy organization, agreed.

"Unless there is public disclosure of legal defense funds, you have the same problem you have with campaign finance, which means that voters cannot make informed decisions," Hood said. "It's legiti-mate in a free society for funds that go directly to the benefit of public officials to be subject to disclosure."

Black was sentenced to more than five years in prison for federal charges and a fine of more than $1 million for state political corruption charges.

Black served as speaker for four terms. Scandal forced him to forego running for a fifth term as speaker earlier this year.

He resigned his House seat earlier this year, one day before pleading guilty to the federal public cor-ruption charges.

Hood said that such disclosure may even be more critical in legal defense funds than campaign con-tributions because legal fees generally come from an official's own personal wealth.

"If a legal-defense fund pays bills that would otherwise be paid by a politician's personal wealth, then in effect a legal-defense fund is subsidizing the finances of a politician," Hood said.

Fitzsimon noted the urgency of legal defense funds as compared to campaign coffers. He said that someone establishing a fund to pay legal expenses is likely either under investigation of wrongdoing or has already been charged with a crime.

"People setting up legal defense funds are by definition in a more urgent situation," Fitzsimon said. "For most people, that's an urgent need for money."

The bill was introduced by Rep. Melanie Goodwin, D-Richmond.

It requires quarterly reports to the State Board of Elections of people who contribute more than $50. It also limits corporations, labor unions, insurance companies, professional associations or business entities to contributions of no more than $4,000 to a legal-defense fund in a calendar year.

The law allows money from such funds to be used only for the elected person's reasonable expenses related to legal action or potential action.

Once the money is no longer needed and the fund is closed, any leftover money can be distributed to specific indigent legal funds, certain charities or payment into the state's Escheat's Fund, a state fund made up mostly of unclaimed money that helps pays for education.

Money can also be returned to a contributor. A
fter the gunshots stopped, Ashley Bjelf thought she heard her friend crying. Bjelf testified in a Boston court yesterday that she told her friend, 18-year-old Natalie Sumner of Franklin, to be quiet; she didn't know if the gunmen were still in the apartment.

That's when Bjelf said she looked over and saw the puddle pooling by her friend's head.

"I stuck my hand in it," said Bjelf, 20, of Belmont, "and it was blood."

Yesterday was the sixth day in the trial of the man accused of killing Sumner last year. Craig Smith, 38, of Cambridge, Mass., is also accused of killing 33-year-old Julio Ceus of Allston, Mass. Smith pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

Before Jan. 8, 2006, the date of the alleged murders, Bjelf said she had never met Julio Ceus. She and Sumner were in Allston that weekend visiting Ceus's brother, Bermane, whom Sumner had dated. That night, the two were hanging out in Julio Ceus's apartment while Bermane got ready for work, she said. Sumner was watching TV, Bjelf said, and she was playing Solitaire on a computer.

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Just after 9 p.m., Bjelf said she heard Ceus take a phone call.
"Hello?" she said, recreating Ceus's call for the jury. "I'll be right there to let you in."

Soon afterward, Bjelf said a tall black man wearing a plaid shirt and sunglasses came into Ceus's bedroom, where Bjelf sat at the computer. Bjelf said the man pointed a gun at her and told her to get down on the floor; she said he gave Sumner the same instruction.

Ceus was in the hallway, Bjelf said. She said she heard a man demand money and cell phones from Ceus. He said, "I want everything," Bjelf said. "He said that wasn't it," she said. "That it wasn't all that was there." She said the man accused Ceus of lying.

Bjelf said she couldn't see the man's face because her view was obscured by a coffee table. But she said his voice sounded like that of the tall man with the plaid shirt.

Then, Bjelf said, she heard gunshots and saw flashes of light. The next thing she heard was Sumner's crying. Blood was coming from Sumner's mouth and nose, she said.

Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney John Pappas asked Bjelf about her reaction.

"I realized it was quiet," she said. "And I needed to do something."

Bjelf said she ran out of the bedroom. In the hallway, she stepped around Julio Ceus, who was shot twice in the head. Bjelf said she ran downstairs to Bermane Ceus's apartment and told him what happened. Records show Bermane Ceus called 911 at 9:23 p.m.

"Did you tell Bermane Ceus and the police that you wanted to leave?" Pappas asked.

"Yes," Bjelf said, wiping her face with a tissue.

Pappas asked her where she wanted to go.

"Home."

Smith's attorney, James Budreau, asked Bjelf if she had paid much attention to Julio Ceus when he went to answer the apartment door. Bjelf said she hadn't. Budreau asked her if she'd kept track of how long Ceus was gone. Bjelf said no.

"You weren't keeping time," Budreau said. "You were playing Solitaire."

Julio Ceus's former girlfriend also testified yesterday. Amanda Goodwin, 22, of Maine, said she was dating Ceus, whom witnesses said dealt cocaine, in January 2006.

Goodwin said she was with Ceus the entire week before he was killed, first in a hotel in Boston to celebrate New Year's Eve, then on a trip to New Jersey to visit another brother and then at his Allston apartment. That week, Goodwin said she met Smith twice.

Smith came to see Ceus on New Year's Eve, Goodwin said. The two met privately for a few minutes in the hotel, Goodwin said, and then she joined them. Goodwin said Smith told her his name was Chris. She said she didn't know what the two men did that night.

Goodwin said she also saw Smith Jan. 7, the day before the murders. Smith came to Ceus's apartment, Goodwin said, and the men exchanged what she thought was drugs and money. Witnesses have said that Smith dealt cocaine with help from Ceus.

Budreau, Smith's attorney, asked Goodwin if Ceus appeared nervous or uncomfortable when Smith was around the week before the murders. Goodwin said he hadn't.

Goodwin said she slept at Ceus's apartment Jan. 7. In a hearing without the jury present, Goodwin said Ceus didn't sleep that night. She said he told her he felt unsafe there and didn't want "anything bad to happen." She also said Ceus had called her crying a week before and told her that he was afraid his past was catching up with him.

But Judge Frank Gaziano did not allow the jury to hear that evidence, deeming it hearsay.

Smith was arrested in March and charged with first-degree murder, assault and robbery, among other charges. Boston police Detective Paul Murphy helped arrest him.

While Smith was being booked at a local police station, Murphy said, he seemed calm and arrogant. Murphy said Smith told him repeatedly, "I got nothing to worry about."

Murphy testified that he never told Smith what he was being arrested for. He said Smith asked if anyone else was going to be arrested. Murphy said he answered that he didn't know. Then, Murphy said, Smith asked if he was being arrested for a double homicide.

Murphy wrote an arrest report three days later and included Smith's comments. Budreau questioned why Murphy waited three days to write the report and asked him if his memory might not have been fresh. Murphy said he wrote it as soon as he had time.

Jurors also heard yesterday from Andrew Arnold, an employee of the Sprint-Nextel phone company. Arnold explained to jurors how it's possible to pinpoint where a cell phone call originates based on which cell tower is used to connect the call.

Call records show that Ceus received two calls on Jan. 8 at 9:06 and 9:08 p.m. from a number that witnesses have said belonged to Smith. That number was officially registered to a man named Peter Pan who lived at a false address in Watertown, Mass.

Using a map of Boston cell towers, Arnold showed that the calls were made using a cell tower in the area of Ceus's apartment in the Allston neighborhood of Boston.

Boston police Officer William Kendricken, who responded to the shootings Jan. 8, also testified about two men who were briefly questioned that night. One was Bermane Ceus's roommate. The other was a black man wearing a plaid shirt named Odanesee Cyriac.

Kendricken said the men approached him and asked what was going on. He said he asked the men for identification and Cyriac gave him a Massachusetts driver's license.

Though he wore a plaid shirt like the one Bjelf described the gunman wearing, police Detective Paul McLaughlin testified that Cyriac did not fit the rest of Bjelf's description: Bjelf said the gunman looked 30 and Cyriac was 47; Bjelf said the gunman was 6 feet tall and Cyriac was short; Bjelf said the gunman had brown skin and Cyriac's skin was dark.

Budreau asked Kendricken if it was possible that people sometimes look younger than they are. Kendricken said it was. He also asked him if Bjelf had seen Cyriac outside the apartment that night. Kendricken said he didn't know; she could have, he said.

Testimony is expected to wrap up today, and the lawyers are expected to give their closing arguments. It's unclear whether the jury will start deliberating today or tomorrow.


Carrollton police discovered the body at about 11:15 a.m. Tuesday in the 3200 block of Keller Springs Road.

A candlelight vigil is being held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Andrews United Methodist Church in the 200 block of SE Green Oaks Boulevard in Arlington.

Investigators said the female was seen at a convenience store at Interstate 35E and Mayhill Road in Denton. She was talking to a male, with whom she left in a red 2002 Saturn with the Texas license plate Z57WBT. Police said the male is a person of interest in the case.

The cause of death is still under investigation.

Anyone that has any information in the case is asked to contact the Carrollton Police Department at 972-466-3333.

Memorial donations can be made to a group Goodwin was active with: