The North Carolina Embezzler

Teresa Davis, the elections official for Johnston County, North Carolina, resigned on July 14 after being linked to missing money in an investigation by the Johnston County’s Board of Elections.

According to Peggy Lim, reporter with The News & Observer, Davis learned about the investigation on Monday.

“Yes, money is missing,” Davis said in a statement the day before she finally resigned. “And I take full responsibility.”

Mark Payne, a county attorney, said Davis will begin paying the sum soon, though no specific date has been given.

As with most embezzling schemes, the money is believed to have been taken in small amounts over a long period of time. The Associated Press states Davis took a total of $6,000 over the course of five years and that this sum included notary fees. Lim reports it was $6,290 and also mentions notary fees. Neither, however, specifies what the total is for these notary fees or where they come from. To this end, The Notary Republic contacted the Office of the North Carolina Secretary of State.

George Jeter, Director of Communications said that the Office of the Secretary of State had looked into things and found that no notary had violated any of the State's notary laws and that the aforementioned situation had “more to do with country government policies and expectations.”

Jeter suggested that this reporter contact the county manager Rick Hester for more information.

According to Hester, Davis is a commissioned notary and the money comes from notarizations occasionally performed in her office.

“How that got to be in there I don’t know,” he said, referring to the account of events offered by the Associated Press and Lim’s story for the News & Observer, “things like that are published and people have no basis for saying them. I know [notarizations] didn’t happen a lot, but I’d be afraid to guess. If I was gonna guess, I’d say it was less than $100. There isn’t enough traffic; it’s a two-person office, so it didn’t happen a lot.”

Regardless of the quantity, the act remains. Davis was a notary public and public servant with a duty to the citizens of Johnston County; these roles share a requirement of honesty and strong moral fiber. Davis can pay off the money—it’s winning the trust of the community that will pose the greatest challenge.

Special thanks to Peggy Lim at The News & Observer; Melissa Bradley at elainemarshall.com for putting me in touch with George Jeter; George Jeter, Director of Communications for the NCSOS; and Rick Hester, county manager, for the information and an invigorating game of telephone tag.