NC senator on colleague’s complaint: I ‘apologize if she felt disrespected or unsafe’

State Sen. Paul Lowe is addressing an ethics complaint filed by fellow Sen. Erica Smith after reporting by The News & Observer and ProPublica brought to light the complaint as well as a police report.

In a statement, Lowe said he never “threatened” Smith and that he only “engaged in vigorous debate.”

“I wholeheartedly apologize if she felt disrespected or unsafe during those debates,” Lowe said in the statement.

Lowe did not mention a police officer’s conclusion that he committed a simple assault against Smith during a caucus meeting of Senate Democrats on Sept. 11, 2019. No criminal charges have been filed.

The section of the legislative ethics complaint related to Lowe, a Winston-Salem Democrat, was dismissed in late May by the Legislative Ethics Committee, a bipartisan committee of lawmakers assessing other lawmakers.

Lowe’s statement came in an emailed news release. Lowe said that he and Smith have served together in the Senate for five years and as members of the General Assembly, “we routinely engaged in vigorous debate in the representation of our districts and the citizens of North Carolina. I have always had and continue to have the utmost respect for Senator Erica Smith and all of the members of the General Assembly.”

“I respect all human beings and have never, in the course of those vigorous debates, threatened Senator Smith in any way. I believe that all people should be treated with respect and dignity and any form of harassment cannot be tolerated. I wholeheartedly apologize if she felt disrespected or unsafe during those debates,” Lowe said.

In the complaint, Smith, a Henrico Democrat, alleged wrongdoing by several senators, including sexual harassment allegations against Sen. Toby Fitch of Wilson and Sen. Mike Woodard of Durham. Fitch and Woodard deny the allegations. The Legislative Ethics Committee dismissed the section of the complaint related to them.

Lowe, Fitch and Woodard are all members of the Ethics Committee. They recused themselves from the consideration of the complaint.

Blue, Rabon complaints dismissed

The committee also dismissed the sections of Smith’s complaint related to Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue and Senate Rules Chair Bill Rabon.

The complaint alleged Blue, a Raleigh Democrat, failed to discharge his duties as Senate minority leader. Smith said in interviews that Blue had failed to address other senators’ behavior to resolve her complaints.

Blue’s spokesperson, Leslie Rudd, previously told the N&O that formal and informal processes had been used to address Smith’s allegations.

The complaint’s allegations against Rabon, a Southport Republican, were about his role as Rules chair and Senate proceedings, which Smith said are related to workplace harassment. In Smith’s complaint and in interviews, the senator said she repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to meet with Rabon about concerns regarding her conversations with other senators on the floor of the Senate.

Letters and emails from Rabon also show that he attempted to meet with her in October 2019 and sent a letter in March saying he remained willing to meet with her to discuss her concerns. Rabon was not part of meetings Smith held with Blue about complaints.

“It’s my understanding that Sen. Smith felt she was treated in a discourteous manner by others during public floor debates and wished to speak to me privately about her concerns,” Rabon said in a statement emailed to the N&O on Monday by a spokesman for Republican Senate leadership. “Although such objections are typically handled as points of order raised on the floor, I scheduled multiple meetings with Sen. Smith to discuss her concerns, but she did not attend them. Nor did she separately make me aware of the incidents she says happened during private meetings with her Democratic colleagues. I was and remain happy to speak to Sen. Smith or any other senator about anything.”

Lowe alluded to the other allegations in Smith’s complaint. “As to the allegations aimed at the other six senators of sexual or dismissive comments in Senator Smith’s complaint, I was not present for the interactions and have no firsthand knowledge. I support Senator Smith and her right to have any and all grievances heard,” Lowe said in his statement.

The complaint includes an allegation of bullying by Republican Sen. Jerry Tillman, an Archdale Republican who has not responded to the N&O.

McKissick complaint

Also named in the complaint was former Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., a Durham Democrat. Smith alleges he used his public office for personal gain for not recusing himself on Senate Bill 320, a piece of legislation from 2019 that dealt with regional water systems and state grants, and which was later vetoed.

Smith also took issue with McKissick’s statement to police about the Lowe confrontation in the Democratic caucus meeting. McKissick told the N&O in phone interviews that he has not received the complaint or a letter about its status. He only became aware of it when questioned by an N&O reporter about it, he said.

McKissick also said he has never seen the witness statement from the police report. He called Smith’s complaints against him “completely delusional.”

“I’m sure whatever I stated would have been consistent with what occurred,” he said. McKissick said he thinks that Smith started the argument that escalated with Lowe approaching Smith and ended with McKissick and Sen. Jay Chaudhuri ushering Lowe out of the meeting room.

As they exited, Lowe grabbed NC Policy Watch reporter Joe Killian’s phone and threw it, which was recorded on video. Lowe was later found by the General Assembly police to have committed simple assault not for the Killian incident, but from the argument with Smith. No criminal charges have been filed against Lowe in either case. Lowe apologized last year for the incident with Killian.

McKissick said in a phone interview Monday that he remembers Smith mentioning her complaint against Woodard more than a year ago.

McKissick noted that Lowe defeated Smith for chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. Smith, Lowe and McKissick are all African American.

“I gather since then things have not been quite the same [between Smith and Lowe]. In life. you just move on. In politics, you can’t have a thin skin or fragile ego,” McKissick said.

As to the water system bill, McKissick said he had “no unique benefit at all, zero,” and voted against the final version of the bill.

McKissick’s family, including his father, the late civil rights leader Floyd McKissick Sr., founded the Soul City development decades ago in Warren County. Smith said he should have recused himself because the bill would have affected water service to the development.

He said the only land he owns in the county now is a rental property in Oxford.

“I was never a customer except for the water meter,” he said.

“It’s a fanciful concept, completely fanciful — like me benefiting from the city of Durham water system because I’m a customer,” he said.

In a phone interview Monday, McKissick said the bill was also not connected to his appointment to the N.C. Utilities Commission. Smith alluded to the appointment in her complaint.

Gov. Roy Cooper appointed McKissick to the commission in early May 2019, but the Senate didn’t confirm him for another six months. He resigned from the Senate in January to join the commission.

Smith is holding an online public forum on Wednesday at 6 p.m. about the allegations.

ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom, contributed to the reporting of this story.

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