RALEIGH, N.C. — Former House Speaker Jim Black spent his first night behind bars Monday in a one-person holding cell in the Wake County Jail.
Black, beginning a prison term for public corruption, has a hearing scheduled Tuesday in Wake Superior Court to be sentenced on two other corruption charges. Jail spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens said holding cells are reserved for people staying only overnight.
"He'll be treated like anyone else," Stephens said.
Black, 72, arrived at the jail at 2:20 p.m. EDT Monday, in a black van with tinted side windows. U.S. marshals surrounded him as he got out in handcuffs connected to a chain around his waist. Three men escorted him inside.
Earlier, Black surrendered to marshals at the Terry Sanford Federal Building.
At 1:48 p.m., he got out of the back door of a minivan wearing a red, striped shirt and gray pants. One of his attorneys, Ken Bell of Charlotte, N.C., accompanied him.
Asked whether he was prepared for prison, Black replied, "I'm prepared for about anything."
Black, a Matthews Democrat, pleaded guilty in February to accepting illegal payments from chiropractors. He was ordered to serve five years and three months at a Lewisburg, Pa., prison camp.
Another of Black's attorneys, Jack Knight of Charlotte, said he did not know when Black will be sent to Lewisburg.
———
(Charlotte Observer correspondent Gary L. Wright and News & Observer photojournalist Shawn Rocco contributed.)
———
(c) 2007, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).
Visit The Charlotte Observer on the World Wide Web at http://www.charlotte.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Comments